The Inequality of Same-Sex Marriages

It's not all equal.

Same sex couples in England and Wales can now celebrate their love through legal matrimony. Since the 29th of March 2014 same sex marriages has been recognised and couples will have almost all of the same marital rights as their heterosexual counterparts...almost all of the rights.

Unfortunately the law is not equal when it comes to divorce and annulment. Here, same sex couples have less grounds to end a marriage than heterosexual married couples.

Currently if a same sex couple have not consummated their marriage they cannot use this as grounds for an annulment. At the same time same sex couple where one partner has cheated, then the other may not be able to use adultery as reason in a divorce petition.

To be clear other grounds for divorce are still available to same sex couples, this is not an insurmountable barrier. But the legal definition of consummation and adultery is between a man and woman and doesn't look like it's set to change anytime soon.

Equal rights to marry is a reason for the LGBT community to celebrate, however they don't yet have equality when it comes to ending a marriage.