Court rules gay couple’s wedding not valid in NI

A GAY couple whose marriage in England is only recognised as a civil partnership in their native Northern Ireland have suffered no human rights breach, a High Court judge has ruled.

The two men claimed they were subjected to discrimination by having their relationship “downgraded”.

But Mr Justice O’Hara found there had been no violation under European law.

He said: “The Strasbourg court has held that same-sex marriage is not even a (European) Convention right.

“While it’s open to government and parliament to provide for it, they are not obliged to do so and whether they do so is a matter for them, not the courts.”

His verdict represented a further blow to Northern Ireland’s gay and lesbian community after a separate legal challenge to the ban on same-sex marriage was dismissed on similar grounds.

Granted anonymity in the case, the petitioner ‘X’ and his husband wed in London in September 2014.

But under current laws they can only be classified as civil partners in Northern Ireland.

They were seeking a declaration that their marriage remains fully constituted throughout the UK.

Being limited to civil partnership status within Northern Ireland amounts to unlawful discrimination, according to their case.

The petition, backed by gay rights group The Rainbow Project, was taken against the Northern Ireland Assembly and the UK Government.

Legislation passed in the rest of the UK and the Irish Republic allows same-sex couples to marry.

However, Stormont has repeatedly refused to introduce the same change in the law.

Lawyers for X and his husband claimed their rights to privacy and family life, religious freedom and entitlement to marry under the European Convention on Human Rights have all been violated.

They insisted the case differed from the separate legal bid to have the same-sex marriage laws extended to Northern Ireland.

Downgrading a marriage validly recognised in England, Wales and Scotland to civil partnership status in Northern Ireland amounts to an unlawful interference, it was argued.

X and his husband were able to wed in England following the introduction of the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act 2013.

But counsel for UK’s Government Equality Office (GEO) countered that there was never intended to be a “one size fits all” approach to the issue across the regions.

He insisted that a gay couple’s ability to get married in England and Wales was a matter of policy rather than a legal obligation.

Backing those submissions, Mr Justice O’Hara said: “The judgment I have to reach is not based on social policy, but on the law.”

Dismissing the case, he concluded: “X’s rights have not been violated by virtue of the fact that same-sex marriage he entered into in London in 2014 is recognised in Northern Ireland only as a civil partnership.”