Royal assent for same sex marriage bill
The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill received royal assent on Wednesday 17 July
The change in the law that allows same sex couples in England and Wales to marry in Quaker Meetings has been welcomed by the recording clerk for Quakers in Britain. The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill received royal assent on Wednesday 17 July.
Paul Parker, recording clerk for Quakers in Britain, said: ‘It’s wonderful to see same sex marriage achieve legal recognition. Quakers have been celebrating same sex relationships as marriages within our faith community since 2009 and are delighted to see the law catch up. For all of us, whether we are in same sex or opposite sex relationships, equality just came a big step closer.’
Friends reacted quickly to the news of royal assent, with one request for a marriage under the new legislation being lodged with the clerk of a Local Meeting just after 4pm the same day. The first Quaker marriages under the new law are expected next year.
Quakers have supported moves towards equal marriage, along with the General Assembly of Unitarians and Free Christian Churches and Liberal and Reformed Judaism.
BBC News online quoted Paul Parker on the day the Bill became law. He said: ‘Quakers see the light of God in everyone so we respect the inherent worth of each individual and each loving relationship.’
Friends’ role in advocating for the change in the law was acknowledged during the House of Lords’ debate. Sarah Brinton, Liberal Democrat peer, said: ‘The Quakers, as ever, set the pace on this. In 1963, in their paper, Towards a Quaker View of Sex, they said: “Surely it is the nature and quality of a relationship that matters; one must not judge by its outward appearance but by its inner worth”.’
However, where Quakers share premises with other faith groups, conducting same sex marriages may not be straightforward. The other faith groups need to give their permission – meaning that, in effect, they have a veto.
The harsher requirements and costs of registering premises for the conduct of religious same sex marriages are one of six areas of discrimination within the new legislation identified by the Peter Tatchell Foundation. Others include: differences in pension inheritance rights, differences in grounds for annulment and the exclusion of straight couples from civil partnerships.
The Foundation welcomed the new legislation as an important advance, but say it is still not full equality.
The recording clerk has issued guidelines for registering officers.
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