
Home > News > Scottish Parliament Committee recommends approval of equal marriage bill
8 November 2013   |    News
We are very happy to report that the Scottish Parliament Equal Opportunities Committee has today recommended that the Parliament approves the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill at stage 1. The recommendation is in the Committee’s stage 1 report to the Parliament.
The report concludes four months of evidence taking and consideration by the Committee. The Committee’s report also recommends the inclusion in the bill of amendments proposed by the Equality Network and Scottish Transgender Alliance, including:
On our final proposed amendment, that the minimum age for applying for gender recognition should be reduced from 18 to 16 (the same as the minimum age for marriage), the Committee asks the Scottish Government to provide a detailed response.
The next stage for the bill will be the stage 1 debate and vote in the whole Parliament. That is expected to be in the week after next (week starting 18 Nov). This is a crucial vote on the principles of the bill: if MSPs vote against, the bill is scrapped.
Please therefore contact your MSPs in the next few days (even if you have in the past) to urge them to vote for the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill. You can do that by choosing option 1 here: www.equalmarriage.org.uk/itstime
30 Bernard Street
Edinburgh EH6 6PR
+44 (0) 131 467 6039
en@equality-network.org
Equality Network is a national lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) equality and human rights charity.
The Equality Network is a registered Scottish charity: SC037852, and a company limited by guarantee: SC220213.
We are grateful for funding from the Scottish Government