Same-sex marriage in Scotland
[1] A same-sex marriage law was approved by the Scottish Parliament on 4 February 2014 and received royal assent on 12 March 2014.
Civil partnerships have been recognised for same-sex couples in Scotland since 2005 following the enactment of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 (Scottish Gaelic: Achd Com-pàirteachasan Sìobhalta 2004,[2] pronounced [axk kʰomˈpʰaːrˠʃt̪əxəs̪ən ˈʃiːvəl̪ˠt̪ə]; Scots: Ceevil Pairtnery Act 2004, pronounced [ˈsiːvɪl ˈpeːrtnəri ak(t)]).
The legalisation of same-sex marriage in Scotland has had several notable impacts on legislation relating to Scottish civil partnerships.
[8] By Scottish council area, most same-sex partnerships were performed in the City of Edinburgh (1,591), followed by Glasgow City (1,187), Dumfries and Galloway (625), Fife (285), Highland (230), Aberdeen City (200), Argyll and Bute (158), Perth and Kinross (154), Dundee City (142), South Lanarkshire (124), Aberdeenshire (118) and Stirling (118), the Scottish Borders (116), North Ayrshire (107), South Ayrshire (101), West Lothian (99), North Lanarkshire (98), East Lothian (94), Falkirk (86), Renfrewshire (72), Moray (60), Midlothian (59), Angus (55), West Dunbartonshire (52), East Dunbartonshire (50), East Ayrshire (43) and East Renfrewshire (43), Clackmannanshire (33), Inverclyde (27), the Orkney Islands (7) and the Shetland Islands (7), and Na h-Eileanan Siar (2).
[8] In January 2009, a petition was drawn up by Nick Henderson, director of the LGBT Network, to be submitted to the Scottish Parliament.
The petition called for a change to the law that disallowed two people of the same sex from getting married, by amending the Marriage (Scotland) Act 1977.
The petition also called for allowing same-sex marriage ceremonies to be performed by faith groups, but only if the religious institution gives consent.
The Very Reverend Kelvin Holdsworth, provost of St Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow, has often spoken of his willingness and desire to perform valid same-sex marriages in his church, and was a key supporter of the petition.
[21] 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.
[23] In 2011, Her Majesty's Government announced a consultation on the legalisation 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.
[26] On 25 July 2012, the Scottish Government announced it would bring forward legislation to legalise both civil and religious same-sex marriage in Scotland.
[31][32] LGBT rights campaigners, celebrating outside the UK Parliament on 15 July 2013 for the clearance of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 in the House of Lords, declared that they would continue the campaign to extend same-sex marriage rights to both Scotland and Northern Ireland.
[33] A majority of members of the Scottish Parliament had declared their support for same-sex marriage, including the leaders of each party in Parliament: Alex Salmond (Scottish National Party (SNP); the First Minister of Scotland), Johann Lamont (Labour), Ruth Davidson (Conservative), Willie Rennie (Liberal Democrats) and Patrick Harvie (Green).
[40] It received royal assent by Queen Elizabeth II on 12 March as the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014 (Scottish Gaelic: Achd Pòsaidh is Com-pàirteachasan Sìobhalta (Alba) 2014,[41] pronounced [axk ˈpʰɔːs̪əɣ ɪs̪ kʰomˈpʰaːrˠʃt̪əxəs̪ən ˈʃiːvəl̪ˠt̪ə ˈal̪ˠapə]; Scots: Mairiage and Ceevil Pairtnery (Scotland) Act 2014, pronounced [ˈmeːrɪdʒ an(d) ˈsiːvɪl ˈpeːrtnəri ˈskotlən(d) ak(t)]),[42] and came into effect on 16 December.
The General Synod voted in favour of a motion to begin discussion amongst the seven dioceses to remove the doctrinal clause which stated that marriage was "between a man and a woman".
[51] On 1 August 2017, a same-sex marriage, which included the Eucharist as a nuptial mass, was held at the Church of St John the Evangelist in Edinburgh.
