More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
A couple from Kent are among six to battle at the High Court next week in a bid to make humanist weddings legally recognised.
Victoria Hosegood and Charli Janeway, from Tonbridge, will face High Court judges via a video conference call on July 7 and 8, to argue the case that people with humanist beliefs deserve the same rights for marital recognition as that of other belief systems.
Under current law, couples who wish to have a humanist ceremony in England and Wales must either attend a second civil ceremony at a registry office, or accept that their marriage is not acknowledged by law.
Despite the restrictions, legal recognition of humanist ceremonies has been accepted by both Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Victoria said: "This is a breach of human rights.
"Humanism is afforded the same level of protection as religious world views, and the fact that you can't have a legally recognised marriage is a breach of those rights."
Victoria and Charli are not yet married, but are hoping if they are successful in winning the High Court case they will be able to legally marry at a humanist ceremony in the near future.
Victoria said: "We wanted a humanist ceremony and researched into it, realising actually we couldn't have that without going through the process of a civil ceremony at the same time.
"It's unfair, and we want it changed."
Parliament gave government the power to legally recognise humanist weddings in 2013, but so far it has not been enacted.
Since then more than 6,000 couples have had humanist ceremonies which have not been recognised by law.
Charli added: "I think a lot of people would actually identify with being humanist without realising it.
"There are an increasing number of non-religious people, and maybe they want to fit into some sort of camp and don't really know where to go.
"When you start reading a breakdown of what humanists believe in, it's just about being a decent human being...that's it."
What is a humanist?
According to national charity Humanist UK, a humanist is a person who believes the universe is a natural phenomenon with no supernatural side, and believes humans can lead fulfilling and ethical lives based on reason.
Humanists say this makes them different to people who described themselves purely as atheists, who's belief rests on a disbelief in the existence of a god or gods.
Some argue the difference is identifying with a positive concept as opposed to a negative one.
Felicity Harvest is a humanist celebrant, someone who marries couples in a humanist ceremony.
Humanist celebrants also provide an alternative to religious ceremonies for people wishing to celebrate or commemorate key life events in a non-religious way, such as namings and funerals.
Felicity has conducted ceremonies for couples all across Kent, and hopes the High Court rules in favour of the six couples.
She said: "It's all about fairness. If you're religious, you can get married in a place that represents your religion.
"If you're someone who wants a humanist wedding, you can have your humanist wedding but you also have to go to a registry office, and it can make it really uncomfortable, not to mention expensive."
Felicity said many of her clients choose to have humanist ceremonies so they can craft their own unique wedding, something which she feels can be lost during other secular ceremonies.
She said: "They are very personal - no two are the same, based on the couple and their story, their thoughts and what they want to share with people.
"In exactly the same was as if you were a Quaker and you wanted a Quaker wedding because that would reflect your beliefs and values, humanists want humanist weddings."
Katie was married to her partner in 2018 in Sevenoaks, and chose to have a humanist ceremony.
But the lack of legal recognition meant she and her partner also had to attend a second ceremony at a registry office to make the marriage legal.
Katie said: "That for us was the real negative, the fact we had to still go through the registry process.
"There's been loads of petitions over the last few years and it's legal in Scotland, and I think that's the most pressing part of it - why not in England, I just don't understand."
Richy Thompson, director of public affairs and policy for Humanists UK, said: "We're quite optimistic we'll win the case, because we have already won a case on the same matter in Northern Ireland.
"We hope that this case will succeed, and when it does we'll obviously be pressuring the government to change the law as quickly as possible to give couples what they want."
Mixed-sex couples were able to enter civil partnerships for the first time in 2019, due to similar campaign to change the law.
The Equal Civil Partnerships campaign began after Charles Keidan and Rebecca Steinfeld were denied a civil partnership in 2014 because they were not the same sex.
After years of campaigning, they took the matter to the Supreme Court, who ruled it was discriminatory for same sex couples to not have access to civil partnerships and the UK law was incompatible with human rights laws.
