Date post: | 19-Jun-2015 |
Category: |
Documents |
Upload: | dcmsdigital |
View: | 710 times |
Download: | 2 times |
Equal MarriageMedia Briefing
11 December 2012
Why marriage is important
• Marriage is one of the most important institutions we have. It is the bedrock of a stable and happy society
• Giving all couples the right to marry will help ensure marriage remains relevant and vibrant today
• Being gay is not a good reason for the State to stop couples marrying
• Under our proposals, same-sex couples will be able to marry
Background – marriage and civil partnership
• Marriage is currently only possible between a man and a woman
• Marriage can be formed either in a civil ceremony (register office of other approved premises like a hotel) or through a religious ceremony
• Civil Partnership Act 2004 gave equivalent rights and responsibilities as marriage
• More than 50,000 since introduction in 2005
• Since December 2011 civil partnerships can be held on religious premises (on a voluntary basis)
Civil partnerships are not marriage
• Civil partnerships were an important step forward
• But, differences between marriage and civil partnership have remained:
– 2 separate, legal institutions, with 2 separate names;
– You are married by saying a set form of words; civil partners only sign a register
– Existing ban creates problems for people seeking a gender recognition certificate
• To change your gender, you currently have to end your marriage
• Graphic 1: Equal Marriage – key proposals
• Freedom of religion is already guaranteed under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights
• ‘Quadruple lock’ provides additional security for religious organisations
• We will continue to work closely with religious organisations on details of these protections
• We recognise strong feelings on both sides of the debate
Protections for religious bodies
For the record
• No religious body will be forced to conduct same sex marriages
• Equal marriage doesn’t change anything about our approach to teaching in schools. Head teachers will still decide what teachers in their school should teach
• We are not removing the terms ‘wife’ and ‘husband’ or ‘father’ and ‘mother’