The bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 26 June 2013 by Alex Neil MSP, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing.

[13] The Government rejected the petition, as legalising same-sex marriage in Scotland only would require changes in non-devolved matters such as the areas of immigration, pensions and inheritance law all of which would have to be done at national level.

[15] In 2011 Her Majesty's Government announced a consultation on the legalising of same-sex marriage in England and Wales would be held, and it began in March 2012.

The consultation offered consideration on both removing religious prohibitions for civil partnerships and also legalising same-sex marriage within that country.

"[16]Unlike the English and Welsh Consultation, the one for Scotland dealt with the issue of same-sex marriage in a religious context.

[19][20] On 25 July 2012 the Scottish Government announced it would bring forward legislation to legalise both civil and religious same-sex marriage in Scotland.

[23][24] LGBT rights campaigners, celebrating outside the UK parliament on 15 July 2013 for the clearance of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill in the House of Lords, declared that they would continue the campaign to extend same-sex marriage rights to both Scotland and Northern Ireland.

[25] The majority of the members of the Scottish Parliament have declared their support for same-sex marriage, including the leader of each party in Parliament: Alex Salmond (SNP; First Minister of Scotland), Johann Lamont (Labour), Ruth Davidson (Conservative), Willie Rennie (Liberal Democrats) and Patrick Harvie (Green).