Here is a complete list of the countries where same-sex marriage has been or is soon to be legalised: Legal: Australia (2017) Malta (2017) Germany (2017) Columbia (2016) United States (2015) Greenland (2015) Ireland (2015) Finland (2015) Luxembourg (2014) Scotland (2014) England and Wales (2013) Brazil (2013) France (2013) New Zealand (2013) Uruguay (2013) Denmark (2012) Argentina (2010) Portugal (2010) Iceland (2010) Sweden (2009) Norway (2008) South Africa (2006) Spain (2005) Canada (2005) Belgium (2003) The Netherlands (2000) To become legal: Austria (2019)Taiwan (2019) Costa Rica (2020)

A baker in New Zealand-based has refused to make a wedding cake for a Brisbane based lesbian couple, after saying it was “against her beliefs”. According to Stuff, The baker from “Kath’s Devine Cakes” refused to make the cake for Sasha Patrick and her partner Moe Barr and their planned ceremony in January in Waipu – located on New Zealand’s North Island. Kath declined their request, citing their sexuality as the reason. “I do not wish to offend either of you and I thank you for letting me know that it is a same-sex wedding,” Kath wrote. “Even though as individuals you are both fabulous and amazing people, I must follow the integrity of my heart and beliefs. “Our government has legalised same-sex marriages but it is not my belief that it is correct, therefore I will not support it and cannot make a wedding cake for you.” Patrick and Barr had been planning their wedding before same-sex marriage was legalised in Australia last year, and said they were shocked to receive the email. “We were really surprised to get that email,” Patrick told Stuff. “We’ve been really open about the fact it’s a same-sex wedding and had absolutely no […]

Queen Elizabeth II’s distant cousin, who is openly gay, announced he was to wed his partner this summer. It will be the first same-sex marriage in the extended British royal family. “It’s symbolic,” said royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams.“The royals were in a form of straitjacket before about who they could marry. And there was a stigma for years and years in British society [about being gay]. This wedding also shows that the royal family is not immovable.” Lord Ivar Mountbatten, the great-great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria and great-nephew of Earl Mountbatten, who was killed by the IRA, has said that he will tie the knot with James Coyle in an intimate ceremony on his country estate in Devon. His ex-wife, Penny Mountbatten, whom he married in 1994 and with whom he has three children, will give him away during the ceremony. Speaking in an extended interview with Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper, Mountbatten said that his lifelong friend Prince Edward — Queen Elizabeth’s youngest child — is unable to attend the wedding, but that he and his wife, Sophie, Countess of Wessex, “adore” his husband-to-be. This wedding announcement, of course, comes soon after another historic royal betrothal. Prince Harry, the queen’s grandson, […]

On 9 January, the first day that same-sex couples can formally marry in Australia, Sydney Festival will host a giant wedding reception for Sydney to celebrate all the couples officiating their love and commitment through marriage. The reception offers the opportunity to bathe in a bright pink swimming pool, entry to dance up a storm in JOF’s 10 Minute Dance Parties and the opportunity to play ‘wedding singer’, or belt out love songs, on the world’s first Karaoke Carousel, all free of charge. The ‘good time merchant’, DJ Charlie Villas, will also play wedding classics all night long. Black Star Pastry and M. Little Panda Kitchen have responded to the call-out for bakers, creating bespoke wedding cakes for the reception. Black Star will create a five-tier pavlova cake, each tier a different rainbow colour and Annabelle McMillan from M. Little Panda Kitchen has a stunning vegan cake in store. Piper-Heidsieck Champagne will be provided for those in fabulous wedding reception attire. Gelato pioneers Messina have also created the bespoke ‘Equality Time’ – salted caramel & fior di latte gelato coated in biscuit crumb – for the event, available for a limited run on the night. After a long and at […]