In July Australian couples consisting of one (or both, I guess) British citizen/s will be able to get married in UK embassies in Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra with more to follow. The marriage is not legally recognized by Australia, but the Australian government has said that it won’t oppose the action. I’ve been thinking about this off and on ever since it first started being bandied about- is it worth either Mandy or myself applying for dual citizenship?

If and when we have a baby on the way- would it make us feel better to know what we were legally married, if not here then somewhere?

The fact that when we go through that time and expense, we still won’t actually have a legally binding marriage is a strong vote in the against column, but the recognition of overseas marriages is before parliamentary review and may well change in the next few years. Then there’s also the point that the more people do this, the stronger the pressure on the Australian Government to renew marriage reforms. Not the Abbott government specifically because they’re hard-line opposed, but maybe the one after will be eager to make a show of being more progressive?

Say same-sex marriage in Australia doesn’t come about for another five, ten, fifteen years. Say that the marriage we have now is as legitimate as we’re going to be able to expect for the foreseeable future. What do we have to lose? Time and money for the same result and the grim knowledge that the certificate on our wall holds some weight in a country we’ve never been to.

But say that same-sex marriage comes around in the next few years, and it’s because people stood up and demanded to be counted as legally married. Then, when it is legalised, the UK marriage will be automatically recognised here.

That is a compelling argument.

Mandy’s parents are both English, my grandmother is Scottish, we both have a possibility of attaining dual citizenship. Maybe it’s something we should talk about again.