Tony Blair Proud of Introducing Gay Marriage

British Prime Minister Tony Blair held a speech at a dinner reception for the gay rights group Stonewall Thursday, recalling the work he has done over the years advancing gay rights in the UK.

Blair told the crowd of how pleased he was when seeing the first civil partnerships taking place:

"I was so struck by it, it was so alive, I remember actually seeing the pictures on television. It is not often that you sort of skip around in my job, I can assure you, but really the fact that people were so happy and the fact that you felt just one major, major change had happened, of which everyone can feel really proud."

"And now I think we were just saying - was it 16,000 civil partnerships? - and what is interesting now is that other countries in Europe are looking at this legislation, and it is very divisive still in Spain and Italy at the moment. But nonetheless it is happening... There are a whole load of different pieces of legislation, which I will not rehearse here, but what has happened is that the culture of the country has changed in a definable way as a result of it. And here is what I think is really interesting. The change in the culture and the civilizing effect of it has gone far greater than the gay and lesbian community."