Urge your MP to support legal recognition for humanist marriages

Please take a minute to urge your MP to support the legal recognition of humanist marriages. After years of inaction from the Government, dating back to the 2013 Marriage Act, we need you and your MP to help bring about this long-overdue and much-needed reform to the law.

Humanist weddings are legally recognised in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and Jersey, and Guernsey is now bringing about recognition too. Parliament voted in 2013 to pave the way for them in England and Wales, but all these years on, Government inaction means these countries are falling very far behind.

In July 2020, the High Court ruled, in a case brought by six humanist couples, that the failure to provide legally recognised humanist marriages means that ‘the present law gives rise to… discrimination’ and in light of that, the Secretary of State for Justice ‘cannot… simply sit on his hands’ and do nothing. Therefore, we must ask MPs to persuade the Government to take action. 

We’ve suggested some text you can use, but please, if you are able, do edit it to make it more personal – we know that MPs are more likely to take notice of personalised emails and queries, which are infinitely more powerful than standard letters.

Here are some examples:

• If you are someone who is planning, or has had, a humanist wedding – please explain this, and the difference legal recognition would make or would have made to your special day.
• If you are someone who has friends or family who have had a humanist wedding – please describe what the experience was like, and how it differed to other weddings you have been to.
• If you are someone who has conducted humanist wedding ceremonies – emphasise this, and identify what makes these ceremonies distinct and special.

You can read more about our campaigns work around marriage laws. And if you have any other queries, please contact us at campaigns@humanism.org.uk.

Thank you for your support.