2 Years of Gay Marriage in England and Wales

It’s been two years since gay marriage became legal in England and Wales.

Hard to believe, isn’t it?

To put that into some context Little Mix were at number 1 with “Word Up”.  

No, we don’t remember how that one goes either. 

There were plenty of people who didn’t want equal marriage. There were plenty more, however, that knew it was the right thing to do.

A century from now, people will wonder what all the fuss was about. Opponents are certainly on the wrong side of history.

Right now it’s about equality: ceremonies, tax allowances and legal rights (not to mention the parties, the outfits and champagne). For later generations, it'll mean genuine acceptance where once there was very little. 

Campaigners have cleared a path. Where others have struggled and fought, they won't need to. 

March 29^th 2014 was an important day.

Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell was chief witness to the marriage of Peter McGraith and David Cabreza. The couple held their ceremony minutes after midnight at Islington Town Hall. They’d been together for seventeen years.

Later that day broadcaster Sandi Toksvig exchanged vows with her partner on the stage of the Royal Festival Hall.

The Church didn’t like it. They still don’t.

Couples already in civil partnerships were told that they’d be able to covert to marriage, but only from December of that year. 

Couples whose civil partnerships had taken place before March 2014 paid no change for conversion during the first year.

In October 2015, the Office for National Statistics revealed that just over 15,000 same-sex marriages had taken place since March 2014 and about half of these were civil partnership conversions.

Scotland welcomed same-sex marriage in December 2014. 

We are hopeful that 2016 will be the year for gay marriage in Northern Ireland. 

You can read our blog post from March 29th here.