The group's legal director James Welch said it was a matter of fairness and equality for the couple's marriage to be recognised and that they "shouldn't have to settle for the second-best option of a civil partnership".

[28] The High Court announced its judgement on 31 July 2006, ruling that their union would not be granted marriage status and would continue to be recognised in England and Wales as a civil partnership.

[35] Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said that the establishment's aggressive opposition to same-sex marriage and the successful demand of £25,000 from the couple damaged the government's "gay-friendly credentials".

[45][46] On 4 July 2009, in an article for LabourList, Clegg wrote that "although civil partnerships have been a step forward, until same-sex marriage is permitted it is impossible to claim gay and straight couples are treated equally.

[52] In September 2010, the Liberal Democrats voted at their Autumn Federal Conference to make same-sex marriage a party policy at the Westminster level.

Peter Tatchell, who was the party's candidate for Oxford East at the time, said there is a "confusing patchwork" of different partnership laws throughout Europe and that "for a majority of lesbian and gay couples their legal rights stop at their own borders".

[64] The Chief Rabbi, Baron Sacks, and the Rabbinical Council of the United Synagogue also came out in opposition to the plans, stating that same-sex marriage was "against Jewish law".

[67] A 2006 Eurobarometer survey reported that 46% of British people agreed that same-sex marriages should be allowed throughout Europe, slightly higher than the European Union average of 44%.

[69][70] An opinion poll conducted in June 2009 by Populus for The Times reported that 61% of the British public agreed with the statement "Gay couples should have an equal right to get married, not just to have civil partnerships", while 33% disagreed.

In the same poll, 62% expressed a belief that homosexual relationships had the same value as heterosexual ones, but 47% of people supported the right of the Church of England to defend different-sex marriage and 37% disagreed.

[81] A face-to-face survey conducted in 2015 by ICM Research for Channel 4 found that 16% of British Muslims agreed with the statement that same-sex marriage should be legal in Britain, with 56% disagreeing.

[86] A Pew Research Center poll, conducted between April and August 2017 and published in May 2018, showed that 77% of Britons supported same-sex marriage, 20% were opposed and 3% did not know or had refused to answer.

[2] A Pew Research Center poll conducted between February and May 2023 showed that 74% of Britons supported same-sex marriage, 22% were opposed and 4% did not know or had refused to answer.

[4] On 17 September 2011, at the Liberal Democrat Federal Conference, Lynne Featherstone announced that Her Majesty's Government would launch a consultation in March 2012 on how to implement equal civil marriage for same-sex couples with the intention of any legislative changes being made by the next general election.

Senior Conservatives, including David Cameron, William Hague, George Osborne and Theresa May, supported the bill,[102][103] however, the issue was contentious in the party.

[107] On 11 December 2012, the Minister for Women and Equalities, Maria Miller, announced that the government would bring forward same-sex marriage legislation for England and Wales in early 2013.

We will draft the legislation to ensure that there is a negligible chance of a successful legal challenge in any domestic court, or the ECtHR that would force any religious organisation to conduct marriages for same-sex couples against their will.

[145] Labour MP Conor McGinn said he would introduce a private member's bill extending same-sex marriage to Northern Ireland by the end of March 2018.

[162] The regulations came into effect on 13 January 2020,[9][163] and the first legal same-sex wedding ceremony in Northern Ireland took place on 11 February 2020 between Robyn Peoples and Sharni Edwards-Peoples in Belfast.

[165] Two couples, Grainne Close and Shannon Sickles and Chris and Henry Flanagan-Kanem, brought the case claiming that Northern Ireland's prohibition on same-sex marriage breached their human rights.

[168] On 7 April 2020, the Court of Appeal in Belfast ruled that same-sex couples faced unjustified discrimination while denied the opportunity to marry in Northern Ireland.

But with changes to the law meaning same-sex weddings can take place in Northern Ireland since 11 February 2020, senior judges decided not to make a formal declaration on any human rights breach.

[173] A "mass rally", organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Amnesty International, and the Rainbow Project took place in Belfast on 13 June 2015,[174] with a 20,000 person turnout.

[178] The first same-sex marriage for a member of the British royal family occurred on 22 September 2018 when Lord Ivar Mountbatten married his partner James Coyle at his private estate in Uffculme.

[200] The first legally recognised religious same-sex wedding in the United Kingdom was solemnised by the Metropolitan Community Church in Pokesdown, Bournemouth on 12 April 2014.

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".

[210] The British Confraternity of Catholic Clergy released a statement on 21 December that the blessings outlined in Fiducia supplicans are "theologically, pastorally and practically inadmissible".

[213] In July 2017, Jahed Choudhury and Sean Rogan were married in Walsall, West Midlands adorning gold sherwanis, marking the "first same-sex Muslim wedding in the United Kingdom" according to The Independent.

[221] In March 2023, Labour MP Ben Bradshaw introduced a bill to Parliament to "allow, in certain circumstances, priests and parishes [of the Church of England] that wish to conduct same-sex weddings to do so".

[231] Same-sex consular marriages are possible in 26 countries: Australia, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Cambodia, Chile, China (including Hong Kong),[232] Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nicaragua, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Seychelles and Vietnam.