The Scottish government has pulled ahead of London and launched the ‘Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill’
The draft legislation will allow same-sex marriage in Scotland and give all religious and belief bodies (for example Humanist) the right to conduct same-sex marriages, if they wish to do so. Remove the requirement on a married or civil partnered transgender person to divorce before obtaining full Gender Recognition. And introduce religious and belief ceremonies for civil partnerships.
The bill will also allow civil marriages to take place anywhere a couple and their registrar choose.
All the major Scottish political parties welcomed the bill.
Alex Neil Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) said; ‘We are introducing same-sex marriage in Scotland because it is the right thing to do. We are striving to create a Scotland that is free, tolerant and fair and I am pleased to say there is support across the chamber for this significant step.”
Over 14 Scottish religious leaders, from the Quakers, Episcopal, Unitarian, ministers of the Church of Scotland and Liberal Jeduasim have welcomed the bill and said they look forward to solemnise same-sex marriage.
It generally takes 6 months for a bill to go through the Scottish Parliament.
