Have your say on the Scottish same-sex marriage bill

A message from the Equality Network: We are emailing trade unions and similar organisations in Scotland to urge you please to have your say on the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill which is now in the Scottish Parliament. Please let the Parliament know your views on the bill – details on how to do that are below. The deadline is 23rd August.

The bill introduces same-sex marriage in Scotland and makes improvements to gender recognition law. It is a huge step forward for LGBT equality (although we think the bill could be further improved in a number of ways – see below).

The Scottish Parliament’s Equal Opportunities Committee is asking for views on the bill, and will then recommend to the whole Parliament whether to agree the bill or not. The Parliament will then vote on the bill, probably in November.

The deadline for submitting your views is 23rd August. The details of how to have your say are here:
http://www.equality-network.org/our-work/equal-marriage/have-your-say-on-the-marriage-and-civil-partnership-scotland-bill/

There is a form to submit your views direct to the Committee here
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/65067.aspx

and the Equality Network’s comments on the Committee’s questions are here:
http://www.equality-network.org/our-work/equal-marriage/our-views-on-the-equal-opportunities-committees-questions/

The Equality Network very much welcomes the bill, but we think there are some further improvements that could be made to it. There is an outline of our views on this here:
http://www.equality-network.org/our-work/equal-marriage/the-marriage-and-civil-partnership-scotland-bill-can-it-be-improved/

And you can find lots of other information about the bill, from our main webpage here:
http://www.equality-network.org/our-work/equal-marriage/the-marriage-and-civil-partnership-scotland-bill/