A second commencement order has been made:
The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 (Commencement No. 2 and Transitional Provision) Order 2014
The explanatory note includes:
…This Order brings into force the majority of the provisions of the Act extending marriage to same sex couples under the law of England and Wales.
…Article 3 brings into force on 13th March 2014 the majority of the Act extending marriage to same sex couples, allowing notice of such marriages to be given from that date. The provisions which are commenced exclude those relating to where a spouse changes legal gender under the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (c. 7) and those relating to conversion of a civil partnership into a marriage under section 9 of the Act…
The results of the consultation on the Shared Buildings Regulations are published here.
The following items have already been approved by Parliament:
Six items of secondary legislation are now before Parliament for approval:
And there are others in the pipeline:
See also David Pocklington Same-Sex Marriage – Update
For a more entertaining report on the same topic:
Men banned from becoming Queen as 700 years of law redrafted ahead of gay marriage by John Bingham
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10654305/Men-banned-from-becoming-Queen-as-700-years-of-law-redrafted-ahead-of-gay-marriage.html
I wonder how many TA readers recall either the novel or the film of Frederick Forsyth’s “Day of the Jackal”? It opens with an attempted assassination of General de Gaulle by members of the OAS, the far-right group in France that blamed de Gaulle for the loss of Algeria. That part is based on fact: Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry did, indeed, lead a failed attempt on de Gaulle’s life in 1962. In the film (I can’t recall if it’s in the book), Thiry says that he does not need to appeal against his sentence of death by firing squad, as no Frenchman… Read more »
‘More immediately, the order rules out the possibility of Dukes, Earls and other male peers who marry other men making their husbands Duchess, Countess or Lady.’
The end of civilisation as we know it…
Armed forces chapels, consular services, other buildings, social security changes, NHS changes, police pensions, …
How ordinary it all seems, how so … non-threatening.
Just the routine of a modern society recognizing its same sex couples.
Rule Britannia!
God Save the Queen!
You may now kiss your spouse and carry on!
It’s so good to see the British government taking the Same-Sex Marriage legislation so seriously. In fact, the new regulations will make Same-Sex Marriage a matter of justice being enacted in public policy – on a level the Established Church seems reluctant to acclaim. And yet – even though the Church still seems to be against public recognition of Civil Partnerships (the one-time only way of Same-Sex Couples being able to register their monogamous relationships) – it accepts that such relationships might be acceptable as a ‘common good’. However, the time will come – when even clergy Civil Partnerships have… Read more »
Hi Ron. Don’t assume all CPs will have to convert to marriage. Government are consulting on whether both should continue as alternatives. And if so, whether CPs should be extended to include opposite sex couples. I’d be interested as to what folks here think about it.
David Walker, I have no view about whether CPs should be retained or even extended to straight couples. But I would be surprised if religious people would not tend to opt for marriage. The more sacramental your view of marriage the less likely you will be to want to register a CP. So I would suggest that, regardless of what the Government does with CPs, the problem for the church will continue. Should the government abolish CPs, the church will have an even more serious problem, because marriage would then be the only way its gay clergy could access the… Read more »
The advice to the government was that if they retain civil partnerships as is then a legal challenge had a good chance of success. The civil pact under French law has proved very popular with straight couples. Lord Lester’a original Bill intended CPs for all. The arguments to include straight couples in CPs are overwhelming, the government has seemed determined to retain them, so I guess the outcome of consultation is clear. I supported the view circulating at the time CPs were initially discussed that they should replace marriage as the gold standard leaving marriage as an add on. I… Read more »