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Wedding bells for gay U.K. lawmaker |
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The first same-sex union involving a member of Britain's Parliament took place in rural Herefordshire over the weekend.
Ben Bradshaw, 45, the rather dashing Minister for Local Environment, Marine and Animal Welfare, tied the knot with long-term partner Neal Dalgleish in a civil ceremony in Llangarron, near Ross-on-Wye.
Bradshaw represents Exeter, while Dalgleish is a BBC Newsnight journalist. According to the Ross-on-Wye Journal, they celebrated their union with a private party for friends and family, hosted by the MP's sister.
Bradshaw is a regular churchgoer and a member of the Christian Socialist Movement. He is one of only two MPs to be elected after openly declaring themselves gay. (The other is Stephen Twigg, a Labour Party member representing Enfield North.)
Bradshaw won his Exeter seat in 1997 in a rather ugly contest with Tory candidate Dr. Adrian Rogers, now president of the Conservative Family Institute.
Dr. Rogers is reported as describing homosexuality as "sterile, disease-ridden and God-forsaken."
Former Cabinet Minister Chris Smith was the first MP to declare his homosexuality, but Bradshaw is thought to be the first to have done so before being elected.
"The civil partnership legislation is a great comfort to me, as it is to tens of thousands of others," said Bradshaw before the ceremony.
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