10 years of same-sex marriage in England & Wales – BBC Radio Merseyside interview

Warren and I signing the Schedule of Civil Partnership at Ullet Road Unitarian Church, Liverpool, on 6th May 2012. IMAGE: Simply Perfection / Carl Crozier.

TEN YEARS AGO today the Houses of Parliament passed legislation to allow same-sex marriage in England and Wales.

To mark the anniversary, BBC Radio Merseyside host Paul Salt interview me and my husband Warren, as we were the first couple to register a civil partnership in a place of worship in the UK.

In the eight minute interview, we discussed:

  • the situation when we decided to have a civil partnership in May 2012, how the law changed about two weeks before, and how we found out ours would be the first a couple of days before the service;
  • how supportive the community at Ullet Road Unitarian Church were to us;
  • why we wanted to have a ceremony in a church;
  • how the story went viral across the world, in 2012 and again in 2013 as the UK Government consulted on whether to allow same-sex marriage;
  • how we wrote our own ceremony, incorporating something old (the rite of Brother-Making) and something new (the first civil partnership to be registered in a place of worship in the UK);
  • whether we dreamed that it would be possible to marry when we met in 2007;
  • why we had three receptions to celebrate!
LISTEN to our interview on the BBC Radio Merseyside Breakfast Show with host Paul Salt [8 mins].

Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2023/07/17/10-years-of-same-sex-marriage-in-england-wales-bbc-radio-merseyside-interview/

Leave a Reply

Your e-mail address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.