On Monday 8 July the Government agreed to set in motion moves which would see humanist marriages be made lawful in England and Wales, as they have been in Scotland since 2005. This is a hugely significant change and one which we are delighted about. We have been working closely with the British Humanist Association (BHA) on this issue and campaigning particularly hard over the past year, briefing Labour MPs and Peers on humanist amendments to the equal Marriage Bill and raising awareness of the issue within the Party (see our article on LabourList for example).
There has been passionate support for this move for equality in law between religious and non-religious people particularly from the Labour benches, who spearheaded this change, but also from across Parties.
We and the BHA thank all those Parliamentarians who have led the way for this change: In the House of Lords: Lord Harrison, Baroness Massey, Baroness Thornton, Lord Alli ,Baroness Meacher, Lord Garel-Jones, Baroness Brinton, Lord Lester, and Lord Pannick QC; in the House of Commons: Chris Bryant MP, Kate Green MP, Kelvin Hopkins MP, Stephen Gilbert MP, Julian Huppert MP, Mike Weatherley MP, and Stephen Williams MP.