The page to come to for the latest on the equal marriage campaign!

On February 4th 2014, the Scottish Parliament passed the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill, with 105 votes in favour and 18 votes against. The bill received royal assent on 12th March 2014, and is now the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014. It came into effect on 16th December 2014 and you can read more here about what it does.

The campaign is not over!

The Equal Marriage campaign calls on the Scottish Government to lift the discriminatory bans on same-sex marriage and mixed-sex civil partnership in Scotland. The first of those is now done, but not the second.

The campaign was started by the Equality Network in 2008, and works in partnership with other organisations in Scotland campaigning for the same aims. It has wide support from people and politicians across Scotland.

The key aims of the campaign are to:

Change the law to allow same-sex couples to get married. Change the law to allow mixed-sex couples to register a civil partnership. Legislate to allow faith and belief groups to conduct religious or belief same-sex marriages and civil partnerships. End the requirement that trans people must end their marriage or civil partnership before obtaining Gender Recognition.

The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014 does 1, 3 and 4 (as it relates to marriage), but it does not do 2.

Consultation on the future of civil partnership

The Scottish Government have promised a public consultation on the future of civil partnership, including whether to allow mixed-sex couples to register a civil partnership. The consultation is expected to take place during 2015. We will be working hard to make the case for opening up civil partnership to couples regardless of their gender.

How to get involved

We will publicise the consultation on the future of civil partnership so that everyone with an interest can respond. Meanwhile if you would like to get involved in the campaign for civil partnership to be available to all regardless of gender, please email us!