I am glad to speak to this important group of amendments to this important Bill, which is a piece of proposed legislation that rights past wrong. The Bill will ensure that gay and lesbian residents of Hackney North and Stoke Newington, and countrywide, will have the chance to marry the person they love, and for that love to be recognised by the law and the wider community.
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Before I move to the detail of the amendments, we have heard some thank-yous from the Front Benches, and we should also thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford (Yvette Cooper), Baroness Thornton in the other House who helped to steer these amendments through, Baroness
Stowell, and the Liberal Baroness Northover. One remarkable thing about the amendments is that they represent genuine cross party co-operation and hard work, and having seen the consequences of them, I know how deeply grateful the LGBT community is not just in Hackney North but right around the country for that cross-party work in the other place. One must, of course, also pay tribute to Stonewall.
Throughout the passage of the Bill, the Labour party has supported the principle of allowing humanist weddings in England and Wales, as already happens in Scotland, and I have urged the Government properly to consider the practical implementation of that. Every year, 2,500 non-religious couples in Scotland enjoy the meaning and sentiment that a humanist ceremony can bring to their wedding. Humanist weddings are the third most popular choice of ceremony in Scotland, and we are glad that couples in England and Wales will be able to enjoy the same choice. The Government originally stated that they could not support these amendments, but we are glad that with cross-party co-operation, we have reached a position where the Bill can be accordingly amended.
I acknowledge that in some ways the amendments on consent and gender recognition certificates do not go far enough, but we have made some progress. Trans campaign groups interpreted the original Bill to mean that individuals undergoing gender reassignment and seeking full legal status in a new gender would have to seek the consent of their spouse before a full gender recognition certificate could be issued. Following cross-party negotiations, the Government agreed to clarify the issue of consent within the Bill, and the amendments make it clear that the spouse is not consenting to the issuing of a full gender recognition certificate, but to the terms of their marriage certificate being changed. The Government also conceded on a fast-track procedure for the gender recognition certificate where a person who has been living in a new gender for an extended period, and I am glad to rise in support of those amendments.
The relationship between legislation made in this House and popular opinion is complex. Sometimes popular opinion leads politicians, and sometimes politicians lead popular opinion. On this issue, popular opinion has led the House, and all the better for that.
To conclude, I can do no better than quote the words of a Member in the other place, my noble and very good Friend Lord Alli. Yesterday he said:
“You have given me dignity where there was sometimes fear, you have given me hope where there was often darkness, and you have given me equality where there was sometimes prejudice”.—[Official Report, House of Lords, 15 July 2013; Vol. 747, c. 534.]