Gay couple suing UK government over same-sex marriage
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http://attitude.co.uk/2014/01/gay-couple-suing-uk-government-sex-marriage/
A gay couple in the UK are threatening to take legal action against the government after they will not be able to marry on March 29, because they are already in a civil partnership.
Michael and Paul Atwal-Brice, from Barnsley, entered into a civil partnership in 2008, but now wish to convert to marriage, The Guardian reports.
The couple – who have seven-year-old twin boys – had already picked out their suits and a wedding cake when they discovered that they would need to dissolve their civil partnership in order to get married.
They discovered they would need to effectively get a divorce when they tried to book a registrar for their big day.
The government has not yet decided how same-sex couples will be able to convert their civil partnership to marriage.
Paul, 34, said: “We’re being penalised because we’re already in a civil partnership. No couple should be asked to divorce or dissolve to be able to get married. To dissolve a civil partnership, you have to go to court, and you have to have a valid reason.
“Wanting to get married is hardly a valid reason to dissolve a civil partnership, so we would effectively have had to commit perjury.”
“For us this is about equality,” said Paul. “But it’s not just the principle of the situation – there are legal and practical difficulties if we were forced to divorce. If our civil partnership were dissolved there would be a period of time when we would not be each other’s next of kin, for example.”
A spokeswoman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said: “We are continuing to work hard to ensure that couples wanting to convert their civil partnerships into marriages are able to do so as soon as possible. We aim to do this before the end of 2014.
“It will take a little longer because we need to introduce completely new procedures and processes. This contrasts with the work to make new marriages for same-sex couples possible, where we have been able to build on existing processes so implementation is more straightforward.
“The conversion process will ensure that couples in civil partnerships do not have a break in their legal relationship, which could have implications for matters such as their pension entitlements.”
Currently, this only applies in England and Wales.
Later today (4 Feb 2014), Scotland will have their final vote on marriage equality. The issue of dissolving a civil partnership and directly converting it into a marriage is one of the proposed amendments. While the main bill is expected to pass by a wide majority, the various amendments seem like they will face defeat.
Northern Ireland's main political parties have all said they will never allow marriage equality to happen there.
