Same-sex marriages on cards for August

Gay and transgender couples could be able to marry - and adopt children - as soon as August, after a Parliamentary committee approved a change to marriage laws.

The Government Administration select committee considered 21,533 public submissions on the bill to legalise same-sex marriage, 2898 of them unique, and a majority of members recommended that it should be passed into law with a few changes.

The committee said the Marriage Act should be amended to put it beyond doubt that religious ministers were not obliged to marry couples against their will, and would not breach people's rights if they spoke against gay marriage from the pulpit.

Labour MP Louisa Wall, the bill's sponsor, said it was always the intention of the bill to protect religious freedoms, but the amendments would make it explicit.

The bill would be read for a second time on March 13 and was likely to go into committee stages on March 27.

If it was not stalled in committee, it could pass into law in April.

After the law passed, there will be a four-month period before same-sex weddings can take place, which means couples will be able to get married in August at the earliest.

Officials said there was a chance that the entire four-month window would not be required before marriages could go ahead but this would be confirmed later in the year.

The bill would also make it possible for gay and transgender couples to adopt.

The report said it was "absurd" that gay individuals could adopt but same-sex couples could not, and it recommended that married couples were eligible to adopt regardless of the parents' gender.

Of the submissions on the bill, 10,487 were in favour and 8148 against.

The legislation passed its first reading by 80 votes to 40, but many of those supporters pledged their vote for the first reading only and would reconsider after the select committee stage.

Submissions

Total: 21,533

For: 10,487

Against: 8148

Submissions heard: 220

- Isaac Davison of the NZ Herald