Same-sex marriage in the United Kingdom

Wilkinson v Kitzinger
Court	High Court of Justice Family Division
Decided	31 July 2006
Citation(s)	[2006] EWHC 2022 (Fam) [2006] H.R.L.R. 36
Court membership
Judge(s) sitting	Potter P

Same-sex marriage is legal in the United Kingdom, with the exception of Northern Ireland. Marriage is a devolved issue in parts of the United Kingdom, and the status of same-sex marriage is different in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Of the fourteen British Overseas Territories, same-sex marriage has been legal in Akrotiri and Dhekelia and the British Indian Ocean Territory (for UK military personnel) since 3 June 2014, the Pitcairn Islands since 14 May 2015, the British Antarctic Territory since 13 October 2016, Gibraltar since 15 December 2016, Ascension Island since 1 January 2017 and in the Falkland islands since 12 April 2017. Of the three Crown dependencies, same-sex marriage has been legal in the Isle of Man since 22 July 2016 and will soon be legal in Guernsey (awaits commencement).

In common law a marriage between persons of the same sex was void ab initio. In 1680, Arabella Hunt married "James Howard"; in 1682 the marriage was annulled on the ground that Howard was in fact Amy Poulter, a 'perfect woman in all her parts', and two women could not validly marry. In 1866, in Hyde v. Hyde and Woodmansee (a case of polygamy), Lord Penzance's judgment began "Marriage as understood in Christendom is the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman, to the exclusion of all others."

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