All married men can legally be called ‘wives’ and all married women called ‘husbands’ under the government’s gay marriage bill, it was announced in late June.
The redefinition is found in the small print to the official explanation of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill.
Confusion in cloud cuckoo land
Critics called it ridiculous and a ‘mangling of the English language’ which belongs to ‘cloud cuckoo land’. According to the official explanation published alongside the bill, the terms husbands and wives will mean people of either gender. It states: ‘This means that “husband” here will include a man or a woman in a same sex marriage, as well as a man married to a woman. In a similar way, “wife” will include a woman married to another woman or a man married to a man. The result is that this section is to be construed as including both male and female same-sex marriage’.
Yet it then goes on to say that in future legislation the traditional male-only meaning of husband and female-only understanding of wife could make a comeback – but not in all cases. ‘The term “husband” will in future legislation include a man who is married to another man (but not a woman in a marriage with another woman),’ it adds, confusingly.
