UK Supreme Court judge backs Northern Ireland gay marriage

A UK Supreme Court judge, Lord Wilson, has spoken out about the gay marriage situation in Northern Ireland.

Speaking at Queen’s University in Belfast, Lord Wilson wondered how long Northern Ireland would “be able to hold back the tide in favour of same-sex marriages”.

Unlike the rest of the UK, the Northern Ireland assembly still hasn’t introduced same-sex marriage after it was blocked twice by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) – despite being supported by other major parties.

Lord Wilson argued that to allow same-sex couples the right to marry strengthened the institution of marriage, rather than weakening it, saying: “The availability of marriage dignifies same-sex love. In my view, the most important benefit of same-sex marriage is the symbol that it holds up to the heterosexual community, not forgetting teenagers apprehensively trying to make sense of their own emerging sexuality, that each of the two types of intimate adult love is as valid as the other.”

Lord Wilson also argued that rather than lamenting the loss of the “nuclear family”, we should recognise and accept the new “blended family”.