Six aspects of discrimination are enshrined in legislation
Campaign for full equal marriage will continue
London – 17 July 2013
“Although the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act is a welcome and important advance, it is not full equality. Same-sex marriages are legalised under a new law that is separate and different from the Marriage Act 1949. Separate and different are not equal. There are six discriminatory aspects of the new legislation,” said Peter Tatchell, Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation and coordinator of the Equal Love campaign, which launched the campaign for marriage equality in 2010.
He was commenting on the legislation having passed through both houses of parliament. It received royal assent today and is now the law of England and Wales. The first same-sex marriages are expected to take place in the summer of 2014.
“The campaign for true equal marriage will continue. We will seek to rectify the shortcomings in a subsequent bill; probably when the government next year addresses the issue of civil partnerships for opposite-sex couples,” added Mr Tatchell.
“The six aspects of discrimination in the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act are:
“Rightly or wrongly, the existing grounds for the annulment of a marriage – non-consummation and adultery – do not apply in the case of same-sex marriages.
“The Church of England and the Church in Wales are explicitly banned from performing religious same-sex marriages, even if they decide they want to.
“The special requirements and costs of registering premises for the conduct of religious same-sex marriages are much harsher than for opposite-sex marriages in religious premises. In the case of shared premises, all other sharing faith organisations have to give their permission for the conduct of marriages involving LGBT people. In effect, they have a veto.
“Pension inheritance rights are fewer on death of a same-sex marriage spouse. The surviving partner is not entitled to inherit the full value of their pension if it was begun prior to 1988 (only the value of contributions since 1988 can be inherited). There is no such sweeping limitation on pension inheritance in the case of opposite-sex marriages.
“There is no restoration of the marriages of trans people that were annulled as a precondition for them securing a gender recognition certificate. The spouse of a transgender person must consent to the marriage continuing after the issue of a gender recognition certificate.
“The legislation does not repeal the ban on opposite-sex civil partnerships. Straight couples continue to be banned from having a civil partnership, even though the government’s own public consultation on equal marriage found that 61% of respondents supported the right of heterosexual couples to have a civil partnership if they desire one. Only 24% disagreed,” said Mr Tatchell.
Commenting on the legislation becoming law, he added:
“The overwhelming vote for same-sex marriage in both the Commons and the Lords is a defeat for homophobic discrimination and a victory for love and marriage. After a 21-year-long campaign, we have now secured marriage rights for all.
“Ending the ban on same-sex couples getting married overturns the last major legal discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Britain. It is of huge symbolic importance; signalling that same-sex love has social recognition, public acceptance and legal parity,” said Mr Tatchell.