Gay marriage bid by lesbian couple kick starts "Equal Love" campaign

A coalition of straight and gay couples will kick off a radical campaign called “Equal Love” today, with the aim to overhaul the UK’s marriage laws.

The campaign, spearheaded by long-time human rights and gay campaigner Peter Tatchell, and is seen as the final push for marriage equality for both straight and gay couples.

Eight couples are intending to challenge the current rules that prohibit gay partners from marrying and straight couples from seeking a civil partnership.

The first couple applying is Reverend Sharon Ferguson and her partner Franka Strietzel who are today applying for a civil marriage license at Greenwich registry office. Every week until 14 December, one couple will make an application.

All the couples are expected to have their requests turned down based on the current legislation but the aim is to take this further in the courts so a legal challenge is currently being prepared by Robert Wintemute, professor of human rights law at Kings College London.

Professor Wintemute said of the current legislation: "It's like having separate drinking fountains or beaches for different racial groups, even though the water is the same.

"The only function of the twin bans is to mark lesbian and gay people as inferior to heterosexual people."

Peter Tatchell added: "In a democratic society, we should all be equal before the law.
"The ban on same-sex civil marriage and on opposite-sex civil partnerships is a form of sexual apartheid - one law for gay couples and another law for heterosexual partners. Two wrongs don't make a right."

Same-sex marriage is a growing trend all over the world and currently exists in Canada, Argentina and South Africa, as well as in seven of European countries; Portugal, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Iceland.  

London Mayor, Boris Johnson, and former Conservative Party Vice-Chair and lesbian MP Margot James, have both come out in favour of allowing lesbian and gay couples to marry in a registry office, on the same terms as heterosexual partners.  This view is also echoed by the leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband, and by the deputy prime minister Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats.

In recent years public attitudes have shifted strongly in favour of allowing gay couples to marry. A Populus opinion poll in June 2009 found that 61% of the public believe that: “Gay couples should have an equal right to get married, not just to have civil partnerships.” Only 33% disagreed.