Thinking Anglicans

EHRC analysis of Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill

Updated Wednesday afternoon

From the EHRC website:

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has analysed the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill 2012/13 in light of the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 and the Human Rights Act 1998. This analysis concludes that the Bill, which will apply in England and Wales, would be in accordance with provisions within the legislation and would further the rights of individuals to equality before the law, in so far as it will:

  • enable same sex couples to marry in civil ceremonies;
  • ensure those religious organisations that wish to do so can opt in to conduct marriage ceremonies for same sex couples;
  • provide protection under equality law for ministers of religion who do not wish to marry same sex couples;
  • enable civil partners to convert their partnership to a marriage; and
  • enable married individuals wishing to change their legal gender to do so without having to end their marriage.

The briefing is available here as a .doc file.

Or see the version filed with the Public Bill Committee.

Update

The following additional memorandum from the EHRC has been published by the Public Bill Committee: Memorandum submitted by The Equality and Human Rights Commission (MB 24)

…The Commission is issuing this supplementary briefing to assist MPs at committee stage. It draws on a legal opinion obtained from Robin Allen QC, Cloisters, and Jason Coppel, 11 King’s Bench Walk. The full opinion is annexed to this briefing…

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David Shepherd
David Shepherd
11 years ago

Interestingly, John Wadham of the EHRC appeared before the Public Bill Committee on 14th February explained the part of the submission that he authored: ‘However, our legal opinion suggests the bill in its present form could amount to the state acting unlawfully by interfering with the freedom of religious organisations…to enforce their religious doctrines within their particular organisation.”’ In response to question (Q 343) comparing the conscientious objection to perform the same-sex marriage of members of a church or religion with Ladele, he stated, ‘I do not think that those are parallel circumstances. A registrar’s responsibility, as a public official,… Read more »

Father Ron Smith
11 years ago

“… means that he accepts the potential for theological opinion on same-sex marriage to become dogma.”

Well, there’s ‘dogma’ and ‘Dogma’, David, but it doesn’t mean that every member of a Church has to believe it – as witness the Roman Dogma about Contraception. Obviously, it has no significance for many R.C. couples.

David Shepherd
David Shepherd
11 years ago

Ron: The issue is whether a church opt-in to the State-initiated re-definition of marriage should incur a penalty for those members of the clergy who refuse to prticipate. The proposed Equality Act amendment is clearly an effort to ameliorate the impact of the government’s bill on the church officials, yet the EHRC wants the protection for conscientious objectors to be abandoned. In contrast, S.8(2) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1965 provides a partial solution (the famous ‘conscience clause’) to the disparity between Canon Law and Civil Law in respect of re-marrying divorcees in church. S.5A of the Marriage Act 1949… Read more »

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