One of the first UK same sex-marriages will be performed in Bournemouth this Saturday, following the passing of the Marriage Act last July.
Fourteen ceremonies are already scheduled to be performed at Town Hall this year, but Councillor and Equalities & Diversities Champion David Kelsey is expecting many more to come.
He said, “A lot of people already have civil partnerships and later in the year there will be the ability to convert a civil partnership to a marriage.”
Rob Hazell, who owns the FLIRT Cafe Bar at The Triangle, is one of them.
“This next step of marriage becomes that the next step for equality. It’s what people deserve”, he said.
Mr Hazell continued, “We’ve got this cafe here which maybe has one of the most diverse populations of customers that you might find.
“They don’t stare at anyone who might be disabled or transgendered or anything that, sadly, some people in society say they don’t want to get involved with. It is very important to us, that people don’t judge.”
Similarly, Cllr Kelsey said that so far every single response to the upcoming first same-sex marriage was positive.
“Everyone in Bournemouth is very used to the gay and lesbian crowd anyway, with very good gay pride events happening every year.”
