The words “bride” and “bridegroom” will disappear from official marriage forms if Parliament votes, as expected, on Wednesday to legalise same-sex marriages.
A departmental briefing paper to the select committee that considered the bill said marriage forms would have to be changed if it passed.
“This includes, for example, changing the headings on the notice-of-intended-marriage form to allow for parties of the same sex (i.e. removing headings of bride and bridegroom),” the paper said.
The bill would also replace the words “husband” and “wife” in 14 other acts with gender-neutral terms including “spouse”, “married couple” and “any two people (of any sex) who are married”.