Is the UK that bad?

Newt Gingrich and Michelle Bachman have not even been elected! Just like Sarah Palin...it's all a bunch of hooey until the vote happens. The winds of conservatism verses libralism constantly change. All in all, England will always be more liberal than the US, if history is any example. I mean New York Just passed the same sex marriage bill. It's all in fits and starts as time goes by.

Agreed.  The US is just a different animal than the UK in terms of passing laws.

It could be the people on the other forums are in the seriously homesick stage of moving over here.  It's a bit of a shock when you get here and realise it's not a vacation and you're here for good.  Some handle it better than others.  It's also like everyone says, it comes down to preference, circumstances, mentality, etc.

I've had a tough time of it occasionally, but I could get that anywhere.  I really do love it here. 

I was VERY PROUD that NY passed gay marriage... And VERY SAD not to be there for it. I have been a huge supporter of gay rights for a long time now, and I did a lot of volunteer work for it.
I was very homesick for a few days.
All my friends were out in the streets cheering...
It sucked being so far away.
I was so happy it passed that I was sobbing.

One of the reasons we chose to live in England as a married couple was because America does not allow full equal rights, specifically marriage, to gays.
I refused to live as a married woman in a country that does not allow gay marriage!

I always said that!

So, yeah, I get homesick.

Also it is very true that once you LIVE here, and are not on vacation, it is shockingly different. Job hunting, learning to drive here, trying to find foods you liked back home... learning all the new names for things...

But, it is also an adventure!!!!!

Most people hear US and think New York/Miami/Hollywood and think "Why would someone leave that exciting place and come here?!"  I get that question alot, and I AM from NYC.

When you grow up somewhere, your town isn't all that exciting. I told someone else this as well - I had friends come visit and I would take them on tours and casually wave at tourist attractions as if I was showing them the next building down.  Meanwhile their jaws were hanging and their eyes were wide.  You tend to become desensitized when you see it every day.

People keep asking if its such a culture shock here.  I tell them the truth. Nope.  for the past 8 years I'd lived just 35 miles north of NYC in Rockland county.  And the place/life was just the same as it was here.

There are some hard parts, but its the process of settling in.  Its different when you move states...you can still immediately find a job, continue to drive, vote, etc.

Here...you are an immigrant and must start all of the things you took for granted from scratch. that can be too much for some, bearable for others and be a total adventure for the rest.  Each experience is their own.

Personally, I am absolutely in love with the place and though my town isn't all that big like London or Manchester, I love it.  I can walk 15 minutes and see horses and sheep and then walk 1 minutes the other way and be in the middle of town. ::happy sigh::

Well, technically, the UK doesn't allow gay marriage either.  There's a movement here to make marriage available to gay couples and civil partnerships available to straight ones.  Maybe one thing that the States seem to have going for them is the ones that are now legalising gay unions are going for marriage over something short of it.

It could be the people on the other forums are in the seriously homesick stage of moving over here.  It's a bit of a shock when you get here and realise it's not a vacation and you're here for good.  Some handle it better than others.  It's also like everyone says, it comes down to preference, circumstances, mentality, etc.

I've had a tough time of it occasionally, but I could get that anywhere.  I really do love it here. 

That's very true, when DW first moved here and probably for about 18 months she had a hard time. Thought that everything here "was a struggle". She'd go to bed early and sometimes I'd hear in in tears. The big turning point for her was when she finally got a job and felt more independent and building up her own circle of friends rather than just people she knew through me (although she classes them as friends and gets on really well with my sister and her family).
So now she says she doesn't envisage moving back to the States, after 3 years she feels she has finally acclimatised.
Of course theres things she misses about the US, but she now feels that can be covered with holidays there.
The only thing now that she thinks would take her back is her daughter who is over there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.... No place is perfect, YET... gay marriage, civil partnerships, civil unions... I know. Believe me. It is not fully equal. Right.
But to go from NOTHING, to SOMETHING, is progress. And NYC just did that.

The country of England extended nationwide "gay romantic partner rights" and America has not. There is nothing on a federal level, and that is my point!
Some states have - the country has not.

OK? OK.

Not just NYC has legalised gay marriage, but the entire state.  I know this sounds like I am being nit-picky, but it's not just the city, but the bits of New York where they keep the cows.

New York (the state) didn't just progress down a road to legal marriage equity, but leaped into it. 

The country of England...

Forgive me for my unrelated nitpick, but it's the United Kingdom, not the country of England.  Not a huge deal, but you'll find that Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish folks (among others) can get their feathers a bit ruffled when people say England when they mean the UK.  Just something to be careful of depending on who you're talking to! 

Yeah, but i am specifically discussing NYC, and England... I am not discussing New York State, or the entire UK.

Do those places also qualify? Yeah.

But that was not what I chose to focus on.

There are other states and countries that qualify, but i was not discussing them either...

Thank you.

Well this thread was originally whether it was that bad to live in the UK and wasn't discussing gay rights either!

Well, in this case you're not really discussing England, because it was the UK government that brought in civil partnerships through the entire UK, not just England, and it's the entire state of New York that has legalised gay marriage, not just NYC.

Whatever, you are being really pedantic.
I used to live in NYC, and now I live in England... I was sharing MY experience, AND ONLY MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, as an attempt to help someone.
If I had lived in upstate NY, or California, or Ohio, and moved to Ireland, or Cuba, I would be mentioning those locations... I was discussing gay marriage because it directly applied to my moment of homesickness.  
I am not as qualified to discuss the entire UK, as you seem to be. I have only lived in ONE location. England. Therefore, I am offering the assistance I can offer.
And, the only credit I will give to upstate New York is needlessly preventing gay marriage in NYC from being legal SOONER.
PEOPLE UPSTATE ARE VERY DIFFERENT FROM PEOPLE IN NYC.
NYC is very gay, and very gay friendly...

Please stop nitpicking at me. I've not come on here to argue with anyone. I posted in an attempt to assist someone, as I have received a lot of assistance on here, and I have a desire to return the favour.
I am not trying to offend anyone.

It's not pedantic to know the difference between England and the UK. I understand that you are talking about your personal reasons for moving to England, but when you are talking about the civil partnership laws, that refers to the UK, not just England, and as NOT said, the two are not interchangeable and it makes people from the other home nations annoyed when they are used that way. It's particularly relevant in the context of you saying that it's a countrywide thing, unlike in the US, because if CPs were only in England but not Scotland, NI or Wales, that would be just as unfair of the US situation. Nobody is offended, just explaining the difference, because it happens quite often on this board, and you could unintentionally piss people off if you use England when you mean UK and vice versa.

I think the problem I have is the romanticising of some sort of progressiveness in the UK (or England if it makes you feel more comfortable) can set people up to be disappointed.  In my experience, there's a stream of conservatism in the UK, England in particular really, at least in the south, which will seem alien to people.  It's hard to describe, and sometimes infects even left wing or progressive people. 

The very fact that the majority of the written media here is slanted right (The Times) to proudly right (The Telegraph) to raging right (The Mail/Express) to right wing and tits (The Sun) made me incredibly disappointed.  I am not saying that I feel more comfortable back home, especially with the Tea Partiers or whatever, but there tends to be a sort of inclusiveness to many people who are on the left back home that you might find missing here.

And the reason why I wanted to clarify that the law covers NYS is because over the years the fight wasn't just waged by people from the city.  You shouldn't generalise about what you think it's like to live outside the city if you've never lived outside it, and I know it doesn't take much looking to find homophobia within the city.

I think politics isn't so simple as to say one place is so much more progressive, with it, and an easy place for a liberal (in the American sense) to find like minded people.  I think politics is the one area where I've had the most dissatisfaction, and people should really be prepared for it to be complicated at best.

You're entitled to give advice and support.  No one is calling you stupid or ill informed.  I just want to make sure no one puts on the rose-tinted glasses because of this thread and come here expecting Utopia.  My husband tried to prepare me, but I sort of didn't listen to him thinking anything can be better than W era America.  In some ways it has been, politically, but in other ways it's not.  Give people credit where credit is due though.  Good job on all New Yorkers, both within and outside the city for supporting gay marriage.