HELP LOVE EQUALITY TAKE THE UK GOVERNMENT TO COURT OVER MARRIAGE EQUALITY IN NORTHERN IRELAND

The Love Equality coalition is ready to bring a landmark legal case against the UK government for its failure to introduce marriage equality in Northern Ireland.

The current proposals from the UK Government fall far short of equality.

In January 2020 the UK government will introduce regulations for same sex civil marriage.

While this is good news, it leaves behind:-

1. People who are already in a civil partnership and would like to convert to a marriage

2. People who would like to have a same sex religious wedding ceremony

The UK Government is saying that it must consult on both these issues, and will give no commitment to when these changes may be implemented.

We also run the risk of the NI Assembly returning, the issue being passed to Stormont, and the Petition of Concern being used to block progress.

HELP US MAKE THE LAW MEET EVERYONES NEEDS

We have marched, we have protested, we have written to our MPs, we have tweeted, we have chanted, we have spoken out about our personal stories and we have won in a change in the law at Westminster.

Now the Secretary of State is watering down the equal rights we have won.

We have no choice but to take a case against the Secretary of State on two issues.

THE CASE

We recognise that some religious people will not want to conduct same sex marriages, and we respect that. However, we also know that there are religious practitioners who want to carry out same sex religious marriage in accordance with their beliefs and couples who would like to marry in a religious setting. Both of these view points must be respected and protected. We have religious couples and practitioners willing to fight this case.

In the absence of same sex marriage in Northern Ireland, more than 1,200 couples entered civil partnerships. Now those couples will be locked in to a civil partnership, as they have no grounds for dissolution, but no process to convert to marriage. We also have a couple in a civil partnership willing to fight this case.

Our aim is to ask the government to change the law in line with provision in England, Scotland and Wales so that those religious practitioners and churches who wish to carry out same sex marriages will be able to, and those couples who choose to convert their civil partnership to a marriage can do so.

It is likely that the UK Government will fight this case very hard.

We have couples ready to take this case and we have lawyers ready to proceed but we dont have any money!

WE CANNOT TAKE THIS CASE UNLESS WE RAISE £10,000

We are asking for an initial £10,000. This will allow us to take the initial steps in formal correspondence with the UK Government and, if appropriate, to take the case to the first stage before the High Court. This is known as the permission stage, and it when the High Court decides whether the case is arguable.

The money will be used for the initial stages of the case, including to pay court fees and to provide protection from the other sides costs if the Secretary of State tries to claim fees against us. We need to be able to say that we have money to pay the UK Governments fees if we lose. We are planning to take steps to get a cap on the amount of money we are at risk of having to pay.

If we dont need to use the money you donate to us for this case (if something changes so we dont need to proceed - or we win!), we will use the money for any remaining work necessary by the Love Equality campaign, and otherwise split any leftover money raised between 3 coalition members who work with and advocate for LGBT+ people in NI: Cara Friend, Here NI and The Rainbow Project.

The immediate work that needs doing

We have already prepared and sent a formal letter before claim to the government and are waiting for their response.

We will review that response and take advice from our lawyers, on whether and how we should issue legal proceedings.

We are likely to then have to file our case at the High Court, with formal legal arguments and evidence.

The Secretary of State is likely to respond and we may need to reply to what they say.

After that a High Court Judge will decide whether the case is arguable.

We are likely to apply for the costs capping order at that stage, if we have not been able to reach agreement with the UK Government to cap our costs risk.

If the Judge agrees the case is arguable it will be listed for a full hearing.

There will be a lot of correspondence - with the court and the Government, amongst others - and there will be a lot of administrative work to do, like preparing court bundles.

At any stage the Secretary of State can concede and introduce regulations for the conversion of Civil Partnerships, and religious same sex marriage.

Love Equality is a consortium of Amnesty International Northern Ireland, The Rainbow Project, Irish Congress of Trade Unions Northern Ireland, Here NI, Cara-Friend and NUS-USI.