Brighton Registrar Trevor Love talks to Daniel White about the city’s historic same-sex marriage that will take place in March.
“It has happened in other countries and nothing major has happened in that country, the world didn’t end, there wasn’t an earthquake because same-sex couples were being married, it was just introduced.”
Brighton & Hove City Council’s Senior Ceremonies Registrar, Trevor Love, smiled as he spoke about the city’s forthcoming first same-sex marriage.
While Nigeria and Russia have been condemned in recent weeks for their attitudes and laws towards same-sex relationships, the announcement in December that the UK’s first same-sex marriage will take place on March 29th this year has been greeted with a triumphant reception.
“There are an awful lot of people who can’t wait for this to happen,” Trevor explained as we sat in the comfort of his Brighton office. “Everybody is really excited, everybody wants to be part of it and we’re just very enthusiastic about it, it’s going to be a very historic occasion. Historic for the couple, historic for the city and historic for the Register Office.”
Trevor, who conducted Brighton and Hove’s first-ever civil partnership in 2005, clarified what the change in law will actually mean.
He said: “The Marriage Same-Sex Couples Act of 2013 was introduced last year and it allows same-sex couples to marry in a religious ceremony where the religious organisation has opted in. It is going to enable people that are already in a civil partnership to convert that into a marriage and it enables married individuals to change their legal gender without having to end their marriage.”
However, it is not the first time Brighton’s Register Office has been at the forefront for change, with many of the county’s historic events in recent times taking place at the Bartholomew Square office.
“Brighton was the first Register Office where music was allowed to be played during a ceremony. In 2005, when civil partnerships were introduced, we decided that we would do three couples all at the same time at a second past eight o’clock on the first day, so that was another first for us and we were among the first in the country to actually have anybody register as civil partners. So Brighton Register Office has always led the way in changes and we like to think we’ve been instrumental in a lot of changes.”
With many couples eager to be the first, the Register Office has been accepting applications, with the chosen couple to be the first wed, free of charge, in the Royal Pavilion’s Music Room.
The wedding will also be another first for the city, with a law change now allowing late-night weddings to take place, meaning the lucky couple will be wed in the early hours of March 29th.
“There used to be a time restriction on being married in this country, that was changed last year, so there is actually no time restrictions on anybody being married now if the local authority agrees,” he enthused with a grin.
“Also, because late night weddings were introduced, the Royal Pavilion decided that they would license the Music Room. So it’s going to be the first same-sex wedding in Brighton & Hove and one of the first in the country, it’s going to be the first late-night wedding and the first in the magnificent setting of the Music Room in the Royal Pavilion. I don’t know if there are many former royal palaces in the country where you can get married but this is certainly one of the tops, so we’re really excited.”
Although today we are able to celebrate the momentous news, we are still left to wonder why it has taken a country; so advanced in political views, this long to change a simple law. Almost a decade after civil partnerships were introduced to the UK, Trevor feels it is just a gradual turning of the tide.
“I think people’s perception of it has changed,” he explained as he drifted off into thought. “When you read newspaper reports and things they are not like they used to be, I think people in this country are far more accepting than they used to be.
“You take a country like Spain, quite a deeply religious country, where same-sex marriage has been legal for a long time. It just happened and that’s what I think will happen in this country, it will just happen and in a few years time people will look back and they won’t even think about it.”