The Same-Sex Marriage Bill for England and Wales passed third reading in the House of Commons today by 366 votes to 161 – a clear margin and a similar ratio of support to opposition as at the second reading two months ago.
Amendments tabled to allow humanist weddings and to give some degree of apology to transgender people who lost their marriages under the Gender Recognition Act failed. So did an amendment that would allow schoolteachers to pretend same-sex marriage did not exist.
An attempt to have mixed-sex civil partnerships introduced as part of the bill also failed, but the government has pledged to revisit the issue in five years’ time and review the dual system of partnership registration.
The bill now moves to the House of Lords, where as with the Commons there will be a long process of debate and amendment.
