Northern Irish couples bring equal marriage case to court

Two same-sex couples will take their case against Northern Ireland’s same-sex marriage ban to the High Court this week.

Grainne Close and Shannon Sickles are seeking to legalise same-sex marriage through judicial means alongside Chris and Henry Flanagan-Kane. Both couples entered civil partnerships in Belfast a decade ago, the Belfast Telegraph reports.

Grainne Close and Shannon Sickles were the first couple in the UK to enter a civil partnership in December 2005

After last month’s historic ‘Yes’ vote in Ireland remains the only nation in the British Isles not to allow same-sex marriage. As a devolved issue, the power to legalise equal marriage lies with the Northern Irish Assembly, which rejected it for a fourth time in April, following continued opposition from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

“We are unable to enter into a marriage solely because we live in Northern Ireland,” Ms Close said in a statement. She and her partner Sharon were the UK’s first couple to enter into a civil partnership when the law came into force in December 2005.

Ms Close wrote on Facebook: “This year, December 19th, 2015 Shannon and I, along with Chris and Henry Flanagan-Kane, will celebrate 10 years of our civil partnerships.

“Northern Ireland was the first place in the UK to recognise civil partnership legislation and is now the last place in the UK and Ireland to recognise equal marriage.

“On (Friday) June 26th, 10am in the High Court, the four of us are bringing a legal challenge for a judicial review of the legislative prohibition preventing us from entering into civil marriage.”

“Our barrister, Laura McMahon, will argue that to bar equal marriage is a fundamental discrimination of our rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, which is without justification.”

Ms Close added that the current ban was denying her human rights.

“This is not about Shannon and I wanting the right to walk up the aisle in St Mary’s Church, Ahoghill (that notion left me along time ago!).

“We are being denied a basic human right.

“You will hear the arguments from DUP and other religious groups (all the same that have been played out in the Irish referendum) that we have civil partnership, so why marriage?

“The fact that we have to stand in a different queue from opposite sex peers when it comes to having our relationship recognised by the State is itself indicative that we are treated differently.”

Campaigners are urging people to attend the High Court at 10am on Friday to show their support.

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