Civil Partnership and Marriage Equality

Despite everything, marriage itself is still greatly valued. Couples want a rite of passage, a public announcement of their commitment; or perhaps claim their undying love to one another? These symbolic functions could be just as important for gay couples. There is, however, nothing to stop anyone from devising their own ceremonies for this purpose. In fact, there is reason to believe that some heterosexual couples deliberately go through marriage ceremonies which they regard as binding but which are not recognised in English law so that they can avoid the consequences of marriage.

This brings one to question, what value does marriage hold today? The legal ceremony need only become available to gay couples if the legal consequences of marriage are also wanted or needed. It may be that, rather than wishing to contract into a legal relationship designed with heterosexual couples in mind, many would prefer to devise their own. The ultimate issue remains as to how far the law should go in imposing its own theories of the right to arrange and re-arrange ones intimate relationships.

Get quality help now

KarrieWrites

Verified writer

Proficient in: Homosexuality

5 (339)

“ KarrieWrites did such a phenomenal job on this assignment! He completed it prior to its deadline and was thorough and informative. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

It cannot rely entirely on what the couple themselves choose their relationship to be.

It has never done so in marriage and the reason for this can apply just as much to other relationships. Married couples are now allowed a great deal of freedom to arrange their own affairs in the way they want while they are still together, and when things go wrong, we try to prevent them doing too much damage to one another and their children.

We also try to enforce their financial responsibilities to one another and to their children and both the present and future divorce laws give them some reason to stop for thoughts about their own and their children's future.

So in practice, there is no real reason why a similar combination of choice and responsibility should not be adopted in homosexual relationships in order to promote certainty in a relationship, whether it is in marriage or a relationship. Moreover, in today's contemporary society, liberal minded individuals are not going to stand for laws which return to the inequalities of the past and surely they are not going to get married unless they want to do so. But for certain, they will have relationships outside marriage if they want to do so.

A proportion of these will be same-sex relationships, regardless of whether others like it or not. Whether this is accepted on a legal or moral basis makes no difference at all and many have made it clear that the gay marriages were compatible with their religious beliefs. "As a Church of England priest, I warmly and wholeheartedly endorse the proposals for Civil Partnership registration for lesbian and gay couples. Justice for all is one of the central Christian teachings, and at the heart of the Bible.

Lesbian and gay people who have made a commitment in a relationship deserve the same rights and benefits as heterosexual couples who marry"48 Thus if one agrees with the statement made by Lords Nicholls in Bellinger v. Bellinger abiding by marriage as a union between two member of the opposite sex, we may lose the chance of creating a legal environment in which term 'family life' can be extended to foster homosexual marriages and cease to continue to flourish and develop into the future, regardless of one sexual orientation.