At just after midnight last night, the first same-sex marriages took place in Scotland. The photograph above shows Joe Schofield (blue kilt) and Malcolm Brown (red kilt) from Tullibody, Clackmannanshire at their marriage at the Trades Hall shortly after midnight in front of friends and family. In a separate ceremony, Susan and Gerrie Douglas-Scott were married with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Scottish Green party MSP Patrick Harvie acting as witnesses,
Same-sex couples have been able to enter into ‘civil partnerships’ since 2005, however following a change in the law in March 2014 gay couples are now eligible to marry in Scotland. Parliament’s decision to grant same-sex couples an equal right to marriage has been met with opposition from religious groups. Gay marriage is already legal in England and Wales, however the Northern Ireland administration has no plans to make it law.
Nick Clegg commented:
I am so very proud and pleased that gay men and women in England and Wales, and from midnight Scotland, can have their love recognised in the eyes of the law. This not only shows that we are changing as a society and becoming more liberal, open and accepting, this also sends out a strong signal to many LBGT people around the world, who do not enjoy the same freedoms as we do, that we stand with them.
* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
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9 Comments
These are ‘same-GENDER’ marriages! One hopes their sex is manifold and various! 😉
Tony, These ceremonies have been enabled by the “Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013”. So I suggest you take up your semantic dispute with the Clerk of the House of Commons.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/30/contents/enacted/data.htm
Joe Schofield is wearing a blue kilt, Malcolm Brown is wearing a red kilt, so is the vicar in the centre of them a Lib Dem?
A truly joyous photograph to warm the heart. Best wishes to them from a stranger.
I remember 20 years ago or so, gay people weren’t even allowed in the armed forces and the age of homosexual consent for men was 21. Section 28 was on the books. Gay marriage then seemed like something that would never happen.
How did things change so fast? Did the laws change because attitudes changed or did a change in the law by the likes of Tony Blair change attitudes?
Anyway, congratulations to the couples.
Paul, the Clerk of the House of Commons (or whoever else named that Bill) is clearly wrong. Since 2004 and the Gender Reassignment Act, the right to marry in this country has rested upon habitual gender (at least two years) rather than possession of primary or secondary sexual characteristics or gender-assignment at birth (whether correct on a sexual basis or not). In effect this restored the situation to what it was unofficially prior to the April Ashley case in 1970.
If people suffered from same sex, the human race would have probably died out years ago. 😉
Tony, these titles go through a series of checks by legal professionals, as I remember Diana Maddock explaining about her private members bill/act. So I would urge you to contact the relevant authorities if you think they have made a mistake.
But Paul, what does it really matter? A rose by any other name still smells as sweet 🙂
Very good, Tony – I couldn’t have put it better myself!
The perils of context – sensitive advertising… I was looking at this page on a server located in the USA and it popped up an ad for something called townhall.com which appears to be a “web-based and print magazine with a Conservative viewpoint”. The ad asks the apparently innocent question “Do you support tradtional (sic) marriage?” and features a smiling m/f couple.
Given that their most recent article on the subject on their website is titled “Christians, stand your ground against homofascism” – and that recent contributors on the subject have included Pat Buchanan – you have to wonder if this advertiser has made a bit of a mistake…