UK's new Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2014

[foreversarah]

I'm not claiming to know everything about the law, but I have recently graduated in Law and as part of that I studied Family Law. This covered civil partnerships, heterosexual marriages and the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and a couple of interesting points regarding the royal baby (sorry you can't avoid it anywhere)!

As many people will know the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 received Royal Assent on the 17th July and has been made public just a few days later with the law to become relevant as of 2014. This will do as it says, allow same sex couples to get married.

This Bill and now Act has received a huge amount of attention from the media and from the public, some negative but mainly positive. Great for the LGB community.

I suspect a few have thought, what about the T? Don't worry, despite this area receiving little to no coverage it had been considered in the Houses of Parliament.

Despite it being predominantly covered under the Gender Recognition Act 2004 it has been furthered under the Same Sex Couples Act.

From memory, the GRA allowed anybody who had undergone a transition of gender to receive a full gender certificate subsequently allowing them to get married like any other heterosexual couple. However, if there person who went through the transition was married at the time they would receive a interim gender recognition certificate GRA 2004 s 4(3).


Gender Recognition Act 2004

(3)If the applicant is married [or a civil partner], the certificate is to be an interim gender recognition certificate.


For a person to acquire a gender recognition certificate the person will be required to have lived in their chosen gender for two years and intends to live in that gender until death - GRA 2004 s 2(1).

The new Same Sex Couples Act now amends the GRA slightly because same sex marriage is the same as a heterosexual marriage. No gender recognition certificate, or interim gender recognition certificate is needed to be married. Marriage is marriage. Whoever you are, whatever gender you are and whatever gender your spouse is.

Interesting side note - with the birth of the new royal baby, now third in line to the throne. Despite changes to the law meaning that had the child been born a girl. If Prince George of Cambridge is transgender then under GRA 2004 s 16 this would not affect the baby's entitlement to the throne.

[Jamie D]

It is interesting for me, in California, where there has been so much controversy, to see how these things are handled in other countries.

Thanks for posting this.

[foreversarah]

No problem!

It seems, for now that there hasn't been any violent fallback from the new legislation. There has been objections, there always is. But even our law makers who should know better don't seem to be aware of the law.

For example in the House of Lords one peer said that next a brother will be able to marry his brother, sister or even his father!

I'm sure you've also heard, but you can't change marriage. When in reality the law in marriage has been changed in the past, in fact less than 150 years ago. If marriage had remained the same, husbands would still 'own' their wives and all their property.

Also divorce over the last 200 years has become easier and easier. Note that Hemry VIII could not divorce his first wife or risk being excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Even the. In the 19th century divorce could only be obtained by the rich and this had to be done through the implementation of a statute.