As Great Britain prepares for marriage equality, civil servants in the country are debating a topic better left for Dan Savage: what defines consummation for gay couples?

According to standing British law, a heterosexual marriage isn't considered fully valid until the couple has consummated their relationship. In strict legal limits, this meant vaginal intercourse. But as gays get closer to being able to tie the knot, identifying consummation is more of a grey area.

Gay Star News has more:

Weeks before the government has said it will publish its proposals for same-sex marriage, ministers have opted to leave the matter to judges to define, the Sunday Times reports.

Civil servants have reportedly been considering the intricacies of gay sex for months, and have taken evidence from sex experts and gay rights organizations in an attempt to what defines consummation between two women and two men.

In a straight relationship, consummation is only defined as complete penetration of the vagina by the penis, although it does not matter if a condom or ejaculation is involved.

While some believe consummation could be left out of the draft law, ministers have decided to make same-sex marriage an exact replica of opposite-sex marriage except for the right to marry in a church.

This means like with straights, gay couples will have to consummate their marriage for it to be valid. If they do not, it could lead to the union being annulled.

How should British officials define consummation for gay couples, Instincters?

Comments (2)

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written by esperando, December 04, 2012

I dunno, maybe they should just eliminate this ridiculous provision from marriage law. In the US, we retain the ability to annul a marriage if consummation has not occurred - and I agree that utter sexual neglect from a spouse should be a reason to annul it. But if a sexless marriage is satisfactory to both parties, who is the government to intrude and say it's not really a marriage? What about people who are unable to have penetrative sex, due to disfigurement or disability? If your penis is shot off while serving in Afghanistan, does your right to legally marry get shot off with it? That seems ridiculous.

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written by Joe B, December 04, 2012

I totally agree with Esperando, I think annulment should be left up to the individual to decide some people like a sexless marriage for a wide variety of reasons & I think that for those people they should be allowed to marry and stay married especially if they find someone like them.

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