Gay partners who have an affair with someone of the same sex will not be able to use adultery as grounds for divorce because the legal definition involves intercourse between a man and a woman.
Under the government’s plans, same-sex couples will also be unable to annul their marriages on the basis of non-consummation, for similar reasons.
However, heterosexual married couples will continue to be able to use adultery and non-consummation as grounds for divorce, a discrepancy which lawyers said amounted to “clear discrimination”.
The Government has suggested that creating an equivalent of adultery and non-consummation for same-sex relationships would change the law “unnecessarily”.
It's like watching a train crash in slow motion.
Some one in New Zealand pre-empted same-sex marriage coming in a number of years back as consummation being necessary for a real marriage in law was removed at some point in the distant past, so we are not getting the debate delving into areas that show just how ridiculous redefining marriage to include couples of the same-sex really is. But the Brits are getting the whole freak show.
Related link: Gay marriage: divorces over adultery face legal challenge
may interest you that Murray McCully has a poll on his electorate website re same-sex marriage (http://www.mccully.co.nz).
ReplyDelete67% currently oppose same sex marriage. If true, supports the contention that the media is lying to us about its "popularity".
cf. David Cameron is facing an cross-party revolt in England re his own idea for same-sex marriage
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20751705.
John Key would do well to note.
Lucia, all this shows is that the UK needs to update its divorce laws along with its marriage laws. The only grounds for divorce should be irretrievable breakdown, irreconcilable differences,as in NZ, Aus, Canada and other countries where HRH QE2 is the HoS.
ReplyDeleteThanks DrCp,
ReplyDeleteInteresting figures from Murray McCully's site.
I'd also heard about the revolt that David Cameron is facing, yet he seems determined to carry on regardless. Very weird, as politicians are not really known for their courage when it comes to going against popular opinion.
LRO,
Totally disagree.