British Government Moving Towards Marriage Equality

Lynn Featherstone is "Equalities Minister" in the British Coalition Government
 of the Tories (Conservatives)and LibDems (Liberal Democrats)

An important announcement was made by Minister Lynn Featherstone on behalf of the Government of Britain about its intention to legalize marriage equality before the next election, which by law can not be any later than May 2015.

Relatively recent polls in the United Kingdom indicate as much as two-thirds of the public supports full marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples.

An excerpt from Minister Featherstone's speech is available: 

“While on my travels as a champion for women’s rights, I am and will be a champion for gay rights too. Britain must not get complacent. We are a world leader for gay rights, but there is still more that we must do.

“In March, this Government will begin a formal consultation on how to implement equal civil marriage for same sex couples, and this would allow us to make any legislative changes necessary by the end of this Parliament.

“Civil partnerships were a welcome first step – but this party rejects prejudice and discrimination in all its forms, and I believe that to deny one group of people the same opportunities offered to another is not only discrimination, but is not fair.”

The current law in Great Britain (since 2005) allows same-sex civil partnerships which have all (or most) of the legal incidents of civil marriage but which are barred from occurring on religious property. Heterosexual couples are also barred from entering into civil partnerships. There is a lawsuit attempting to overturn the religious exemption and the heterosexual ban before the European Court of Human Rights.