Equal civil marriage consultation

This consultation sets out the government’s proposals to enable same-sex couples to have a civil** marriage.

The key proposals of the consultation are:

• to enable same-sex couples to have a civil marriage i.e. only civil ceremonies in a register office or approved premises (like a hotel)
• to make no changes to religious marriages. This will continue to only be legally possible between a man and a woman
• to retain civil partnerships for same-sex couples and allow couples
• already in a civil partnership to convert this into a marriage
  civil partnership registrations on religious premises will continue as is currently possible i.e. on a voluntary basis for faith groups and with no religious content
• individuals will, for the first time, be able legally to change their gender without having to end their marriage

Current legislation allows same-sex couples to enter into a civil partnership, but not civil marriage.

The full details of the consultation are included in the pdf version of the consultation document, which is available to download below.

Trying to read it from an “anti” perspective gives a sense of what the anti-brigade are (presumed to be) fearful of:

• that the word marriage will no longer ‘belong’ to the church – it doesn’t already, but most folk don’t think like that
• that same-sex couples may demand a civil marriage in a approved premises like a church a-la bed-and-breakfasts
• that the CoE’s trendy wing will leverage this as an opportunity to perform the above

But this is all about civil marriage, so that’s OK, isn’t it?

*and Lesbian too, etc, blame the hashtag.
**put joke about uncivil marriage here