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Same sex marriage
| The Civil Partnerships Bill came into force on 5th December 2005, enabling same sex couples to register as civil partners. Although this is to be welcomed, there is still not equality in marriage law for same sex partnerships with marriage, and civil partnership ceremonies conducted by a humanist celebrant not recognised in law. We supported the Civil Partnerships Bill as a step in the right direction but want equality of same sex partnerships with marriage through a revision of the marriage law to allow it to be between two men or two women. |
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Civil partnerships must be conducted via the registration service, which means that religious celebrants – and indeed, in Scotland, humanists – are not allowed by law to perform them.
What are we doing?
We continue to campaign for humanist weddings to have legal standing in England and Wales (see Humanist Weddings). We are continuing to push for legal same sex marriage. With same sex marriages as opposed to civil partnerships, when humanist weddings are given legal validity, same sex couples will be able to get married in a humanist ceremony, rather than having to have a partnership via the registration service.
In 2010 we lent our support to the 'Equal Love' campaign. The Equal Love campaign seeks to end the twin bans on same-sex civil marriages and opposite-sex civil partnerships. The Equal Love campaign is working to end sexual orientation discrimination and to open up both systems to LGBT and heterosexual couples. The campaign is about equality for all before the law. www.equallove.org.uk
Until such times, our fully trained and ever-growing network of celebrants continue to conduct many humanist weddings and civil partnership ceremonies every year.
In June 2011 we responded to a government consultation on holding Civil Partnerships on religious premises, and called for the remaining inequalities for LGB humanists and the non-religious to be addressed. Read our full consultation response.
What can you do?
Write to your MP explaining that the existing marriage laws discriminate against humanists, and asking him/her to raise the matter with Ministers. Explain also that even when humanist marriages get legal validity, same sex partners could still not get legally married or partnered in a humanist ceremony as at present they must be partnered via the registration service, and that this would be a clearly discriminatory situation.
Please copy any reply you get to the BHA.
You can support the BHA by becoming a member. That helps in itself, and you can help even more by supporting our campaigns in the ways suggested above. But campaigns also cost money – quite a lot of money – and we also need financial support. You can make a donation to the BHA.
