Students celebrate equal marriage bill in Lincoln city centre

“As a genuine question, do you find it worrying now that all three of the main parties are now in favour of this? I think it is great that same sex couples will eventually be able to marry and comes along way from the days of being gay being a crime, but that is because I am fairly liberal and left wing. My worry is that now a tradionally right wing party has moved over on this issue it isolates those who hold conservative values on relationships. I don't agree with them but they are entitled to their view and I worry now for which party they will vote for come the next election.”

“Wow, I forget that as students, even those students who are actually STUDYING politics, or who are actively engaged in the political process, we are all naive idealists who understand nothing, and are incapable of celebrating one good thing without completely losing track of the fact that successive governments have been letting their people down more and more throughout our lifetimes. Oh, also we're all slackers.
Life is, naturally, a grey, bleak wasteland filled with crises and incompetent politicians. Not actually even being sarcastic any more. We're in the doldrums of financial crisis, rates of depression and suicide are rising all the time, most of us are mired in debt (especially those of us who are students, given that constant rises in fees make it basically impossible for 99% of us to afford it otherwise), and to top it all off, the weather is bloody miserable. That in mind, don't you think we're all about due a celebration of what DOESN'T suck in politics? We took to the streets on Saturday to celebrate how far LGBTQ rights have come in our lifetimes; we as a generation are socially and legally freer than ever before to celebrate and express our love in whatever form it comes. Sure, there's still so far to go even on this, but I'm sure you can agree that we've come pretty impressively far as a nation in the last few days, and when we marched we not only provided a spectacle of colour, joy and pride, we paid tribute to that; to the fact that one more piece of legislation is on its way through that will make life and love easier for us and those we care about; to the fact that marginalised groups can make their voices heard; to the fact that we, ourselves, can make a visible difference.
Also, just as a point, I choreographed and performed the dance performance at Castle Square, made a good number of banners for the event, and gave a speech at the end of the event, and somehow I still had time to do my work (not to sleep, some days, but to work). So, you know, just remember that we aren't necessarily all slackers who want nothing more than a distraction from our studies, most of us are studying because we love our subject and want to do well.”

“so the students would be better spending time` sorting the problems of this once great country out`?

Would that be the same country which once had thousands of people imprisoned simply for being gay?

Seems like Lincoln`s students are doing a pretty good job...”

“@Englishman66

Well I was on the march on my Saturday afternoon because I'm glad that institutional bigotry is on the way out and clearly I can't have been neglecting my studies that much given that I can at least spell "attending" while you clearly can't.”

“I'm a happy, gay, proud student I do well at Uni and I have a job I also actively fights for equals rights I can manage all of this and keep on top of my studies would it also be a shock that I am a gay and student Tour Guide for the city of Lincoln next time I'm doing my tour maybe I'll say that some small minority of the community dislikes students and the MP doesn't back equal rights...yeah that sells the city.”

“I find it both hilarious and disturbing that people seem to think all students do is neglect their studies. I'm pretty sure there were a fair number of people who didn't turn up because they had to get some work done.

Plus, I can't help but wonder just how someone would go about studying homosexuality. I mean, okay, if we were to be looking at civil rights issues of the past 50 years, homosexuality would certainly be discussed, but I fail to see how it would be an actual subject. A lot of people criticise the university system at the moment, but I find that it actually provides a sound platform for a good number of graduates to go out and find success. I was there at the march, if you look through the photographs, you can find me, if you particularly want to. How much work had I neglected in order to go to that one march on that one day for those couple of hours? Barely any at all.

If any of you people in the comments have more negative things to say about university and student life, I implore you, try it. You think it sounds easy, so go ahead and give it a go. If it truly is so easy, you'll succeed, and put us all to shame. Otherwise, you just might learn something.

Now if you'll excuse me, i'm off to discuss business plans with a friend of mine, and get some work done, and somehow find time to eat in amongst it all. There's a lot to do and not much time to do it.”

“I'm not sure what is more disappointing about these comments, the dismissal of progress or the mockery of those of us that celebrated it.

I'd like to point out that not all of those celebrating were students, this was a gathering of gay, straight and bisexual people who live, study and work in Lincolnshire. We all gave up our Saturday mornings for something we feel is worth celebrating.

Because there isn't enough love, acceptance and equality in our world and far too much hate. On Tuesday the commons took a step in the right direction, for out country and setting an example for others.

This isn't even about politics - it's about equality”

“Whilst the stereotype is that many students don't "attend" to their studies, I can assure you that that's not the case for all of them. It's ignorant to assume that. The march on Saturday wasn't a protest, it was in celebration of the fact that the equal marriage bill was voted last Tuesday. LGBT+ sectors of society have the right to celebrate a step forward towards the equality which many straight (but not all) people take for granted.
Trust me, it isn't the best feeling having your relationship being up "for vote".”

“Wow, there's so much bitterness in these comments it's hilarious. Perhaps some people are only capable of considering one issue at a time, but they shouldn't extrapolate that onto the rest of the population. So thank you so much for your kind concern, but I think you'll find that us students are experts at both working and partying hard.

We had a wonderful day, and it was nice to have a step closer to equality for LGBT+ people at a time when so much else is gloomy at the moment.”

“My words there are some uninformed comments on here.
This was a celebration of our Government's decision to allow equality for about ten percent of the population.
Why would anyone not like that unless of course they are homophobes?”