Homosexual Marriage Article

Recent newspaper headlines have suggested that the Government's proposed legislation to allow homosexual marriages will force religious groups, against their beliefs, to marry homosexual couples on religious premises on the grounds that not doing so would constitute discrimination under the Equality Act 2010. Here we take a look behind the headlines and examine the Government's proposals.

Current Position

The current position is that civil partnership and marriage are two entirely separate legal regimes based on different pieces of legislation, although parties to each type of arrangement enjoy equivalent legal rights. Civil partners cannot call themselves married for legal purposes and married couples cannot call themselves civil partners for legal purposes. This means that when making a declaration of marital status to an employer or other organisation, the individual will be effectively declaring his/her sexual orientation at the same time. Marriages for heterosexual couples can currently be conducted either by means of a religious ceremony or a civil ceremony. Civil partnerships can only be conducted through a civil ceremony, although since December 2011 it has been possible for couples to have their civil partnership registration take place on religious premises (if the religious organisation allows this), although the registration has to remain secular.

Government Proposals

The Government's proposals were to allow homosexual couples to get married through civil ceremonies, to retain civil partnerships for homosexual couples and to allow transsexual people to change their legal gender without having to end their existing marriage or civil partnership. It was also proposed to adopt a mechanism that would allow couples who are currently in a civil partnership to convert it into a marriage. The proposals made it clear that the rights of married homosexual couples would be the same as those which married heterosexual couples currently enjoy; with increased international recognition for homosexual marriage.

The Government did not propose to change the rules regarding civil partnership, such as having no religious elements in the ceremony and being only for homosexual couples. Under the proposals, homosexual couples would have been able to choose either a civil marriage ceremony on secular premises or a civil partnership registration on secular or religious premises. Homosexual couples would not have been eligible for a religious marriage...