The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act came into force a minute after midnight yesterday (March 13), allowing one couple who married legally in Canada 11 years ago to wear their wedding rings for the first time.
Celia Kitzinger and Sue Wilkinson, both academics, cracked open the champagne to celebrate the fact that existing marriages of gay couples that took place overseas are now legal, having lost a High Court battle for legal recognition of their status in 2006.
Finding the suggestion of just “pretending” to be married offensive, both women immediately took their rings off and have not worn them for eight years in England, although they have worn them in countries that recognise the marriage, such as Canada, where same-sex marriage became legal before civil partnerships had even been introduced in the UK.
Yesterday was also the first day that same-sex couples who want to hold weddings on the day that gay marriage becomes legal in England and Wales on March 29 could register to do so.
Couples have to give 15 days’ notice of their intention to marry at a register office, although the notice period to register can be waived in the case of a couple where one of the partners is terminally ill.
Meanwhile, couples in civil partnerships, which became legal in the UK in 2004, can choose to convert their relationships to marriage but are under no obligation to do so.
However, couples who wish to marry in places other than register offices may have to wait a while, as, under the terms of the bill, religious organisations will have to “opt in” to offering weddings, with the Church of England and Church in Wales prevented in law from doing so.