SCOTTISH Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson has said she cried tears of relief after legislation allowing same-sex marriage was passed at Holyrood.
The MSP, who is gay, praised her colleagues for the mature debate that led to the Marriage and Civil Partnerships (Scotland) Act, becoming law, and said that the Scottish Parliament "rose to the occasion".
Scotland became the 17th country to allow gay marriage on Tuesday when the bill was passed by 105 to 18 votes, despite opposition from both the Church of Scotland and the Catholic Church.
Ms Davidson wrote in the Sunday Herald: "Growing up in a small village in the East Neuk of Fife, it was a day I never thought I'd see in my lifetime - never mind be a part of - and it was, without question, one of the proudest days of my life.
"I am not ashamed to say that on returning to my parliamentary office after the vote, I cried deep sobbing tears of relief and release and joy and pain and pride and dozens of other emotions all mixed up together.
"It felt (and still feels) like we had just changed the world for the better, and what we had done could now never be undone. It felt that big." The MSP added that the new law would end years of discrimination against homosexuals and that it created a fairer society where "marriage was valued equally and would be open to all".
She said: "Knowing that the Scottish Parliament had stood up for them, young gay people could walk taller into the playground the next day with the courage to face their accusers down."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article