First gay weddings take place in England and Wales
By Nick Levine
The first gay weddings in England and Wales have now taken place.
The law changed at midnight today (March 29) – and same-sex couples in London, Brighton and Northampton exchanged vows immediately afterwards to seal the UK’s first gay marriages.
Prime Minister David Cameron has since taken to Twitter to hail the historic occasion.
Cameron recently hailed equal marriage as an “important change” for England and Wales in an article published in Attitude‘s Love & Marriage special issue.
“This is a country with proud traditions of tolerance, respect and equal worth,” the Prime Minister says in the article. “With this reform we are being true to those values. In turn we are sending a powerful message to young people growing up who are uncertain about their sexuality: we are telling them that they are equal.”
To celebrate the first same-sex marriages, a rainbow flag is being flown above Whitehall in central London this weekend following a request by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
The first same-sex marriages have taken place in England and Wales today (March 29) after the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act was passed in 2013. Same-sex marriages will also be legal in Scotland by the end of 2014.
Attitude is celebrating its 20th birthday on the day of the first gay weddings in England and Wales with a party at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel – click click here for further details.