Campaigners who fought for decades to end Northern Ireland's same sex-marriage ban prepared on Monday for a momentous change to the law at the stroke of midnight.
An overwhelming vote by British lawmakers in July to compel the government in London to overhaul the law if Belfast's devolved executive had not been restored by October 21.
Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where gay and lesbian couples cannot marry, after same-sex weddings were legalised in England and Wales in 2013 and in Scotland the following year. The first same-sex marriages in the Republic of Ireland took place in 2015, after the country voted for reform in a referendum.
A survey found almost 70% of people in Northern Ireland support same-sex marriage.
It's time Northern Ireland!
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ReplyDeleteNow that Northern Ireland has passed marriage equality, this leaves one very tiny part of English-speaking Europe where Elizabeth II is head of State (not as Queen but as Duke of Normandy) that does not have marriage equality. I am speaking of the Isle of Sark, one of the Channel Islands off the Coast of Normandy, France which has yet to approve this. The other Channel Islands, Guernsey, Jersey, and Alderney have approved marriage equality in 2017 and 2018. Sark, with a population of about 500, is set to vote on marriage in the next coming months. Although Sark and the other Channel Islands are British dependencies, they have independent laws and political systems, and the King or Queen of England has been head of State for over 1,0000 years -- as the Duke of Normandy, the original owner of these islands. It's time Sark!
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