UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown Slams Prop. 8.

Posted by Amanda Terkel, Think Progress at 5:21 AM on March 7, 2009.

Coming off his trip to the United States this past week, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown took the unusual step of commenting on California’s same-sex marriage ban yesterday. At a Downing Street reception for LGBT leaders, Brown said that Prop. 8 was an “unacceptable” attempt to “undo good that has been done”:

I was in America yesterday and I know you will be sorry I didn’t bring Barack Obama back. He is coming soon. But what I saw in America told me what we have to do. This Proposition 8, this attempt to undo the good that has been done. This attempt to create divorces among 18,000 people who were perfectly legally brought together in partnerships, this is unacceptable and shows me why we always have to be vigilant, why we have always got to fight homophobic behaviour and any form of discrimination.

In 2005, the UK legalized same-sex civil partnerships. According to the site LGBT History Month UK, yesterday’s event was “the first ever reception at Number 10 for LGBT campaigners.” With his comments yesterday, Brown has arguably gone even further than President Obama, who has called Prop. 8 “unnecessary.”

Tagged as: obama, california, uk, gordon brown, prog 8

Amanda Terkel is Deputy Research Director at the Center for American Progress and serves as Deputy Editor for The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress.