Legislation on same-sex marriage to be deferred?
In March 2012, a public consultation was launched by the Home Office setting out the government’s proposals for same sex couples and civil marriage.
The main proposals of the consultation were:
To enable same-sex couples to have a civil marriage (in a register office or approved premises, for example, a hotel).
- No changes to be made to religious marriages. This would continue to be only legally possible between a man and a woman.
- Civil partnerships to be retained for same sex couples though those couples already in a civil partnership to become able to convert this into a marriage.
- Civil partnership registrations on religious premises to continue as they currently are (i.e. on a voluntary basis for faith groups and with no religious content).
- Individuals will be able to legally change their gender without being required to end their marriage.
Under current law, marriage is only available to couples consisting of a man and a woman. If you are in a same sex relationship you are able to enter into a civil partnership and following the introduction of the Civil Partnerships Act 2004, civil partnerships have identical rights and responsibilities as marriage.
Whilst there was no mention of the above proposals in the Queen’s Speech on 9 May 2012 and there has been reported pressure from the Conservative backbench MPs, the Liberal Democrat Equalities Minister has stated that they are committed as a government to legislate on this by 2015.
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PLancaster@LawBlacks.com
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Paul Lancaster
