Judge dismisses Northern Ireland same-sex marriage cases

‘The High Court has dismissed two cases challenging Northern Ireland’s ban on same-sex marriage.
Delivering his judgement, a judge said it was for the Stormont Assembly, and not a judge, to decide social policy.
A joint case was taken by the first lesbian couple and the first gay couple to enter civil partnerships in the UK.
The second case was brought by a couple who wed in England but want their marriage legally recognised at home in Northern Ireland.
The judge heard the cases together due to the similarities of the legal arguments.
Mr Justice O’Hara said: “It is not at all difficult to understand how gay men and lesbians who have suffered discrimination, rejection and exclusion feel so strongly about the maintenance in Northern Ireland of the barrier to same sex marriage.’
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