Official weddings in England and Wales cannot include a reading to that effect. Religious marriages are also possible only in registered places of worship and humanists, who believe there is no afterlife or supernatural side to the universe, do not worship.įry has previously described his humanism as “an acceptance of the awesome and splendid responsibility we each have for our own destinies, ethics and morals”.Ī common humanist tenet is that life is short, nothing follows it and so people need to make the most of their time. In England and Wales, humanist marriages remain unrecognised, in part because the law governing register office weddings prohibits any religious content and religion has been taken to include humanism under the Human Rights Act. In February, its General Synod voted to start blessing civil marriages of same-sex couples. Methodists, Quakers and Unitarians are among the religious groups that offer same-sex marriages, but the Church of England does not. “The lack of recognition of humanist marriages only reduces same-sex couples’ options further … The matter has been under review in England and Wales for a decade now. “Few religious groups offer same-sex marriages,” they said. Humanist celebrants also have a long tradition of conducting unofficial same-sex weddings, going back decades before the law was changed to allow them in 2013. Sixty-three per cent of lesbian, gay or bisexual people have “no religion”, according to the 2021 census – almost twice the rate among straight people. In a letter to Raab also signed by the chair of the Conservative party’s affiliated LGBTQ+ group, Elena Rose Bunbury, and her Labour and Liberal Democrat equivalents, Fry and Toksvig argue that “legal recognition would have a profound impact”.
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