HUMANIST celebrants in Bradford are backing a landmark legal challenge hoping to change the law so humanist weddings are legally recognised.

Janice Thornton and Val Turner, both based in Shipley, have spoken out as six humanist couples take their case to the High Court next week.

The couples' case will try and compel the UK Government to change the law so humanist weddings are legally recognised marriages, as is the case with religious weddings across the UK and humanist weddings in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

They believe the current law discriminates against them because of their humanist beliefs and is therefore incompatible with human rights legislation.

A humanist wedding is a non-religious ceremony conducted by a humanist celebrant who shares the beliefs and values of the couple. Unlike a civil registrar wedding, it is entirely personalised and reflects the humanist beliefs and values of the couple.

In England and Wales more than 1,000 couples a year already have a humanist wedding, but without legal recognition, they must have a separate civil marriage for their marriage to be legally recognised.

This means couples must go through the formalities twice and have to pay for two ceremonies, as well as having the distress over their humanist wedding not being recognised as their real one.

Janice Thornton has been writing and conducting humanist wedding ceremonies for more than 12 years, each one written especially for each couple.

She also specialises in designing new symbolic rituals that match the vows couples want to make.

She said: "It seems so unfair that couples have to have one ceremony at the register office, when the humanist wedding is the one that truly reflects their love and shared values."

She added: "When I conducted my son’s wedding ceremony, in July 2018, it was such a pity and really unfair that they had to leave their family and friends, to go to the register office to make it legal."

Her colleague Val Turner has enjoyed creating bespoke wedding ceremonies for humanist couples, in venues that have special meaning for them.

She said: “The ceremonies I create are unique to each couple and celebrate their commitment to each other in a way that is meaningful to them both.

"It is so unfair that these ceremonies are not legally recognised and the couples currently have to go through an extra legal process.”

Humanists UK chief executive Andrew Copson said: "Couples who have humanist weddings see that day as the epitome of their love and commitment to each other, and all they want is the same legal recognition for that as is given to every religious person in our country.

"We have tried for decades to address this glaring double standard. Government has dragged its heels and that’s why it’s been left to these couples to bring this case. As more and more non-religious couples choose to have Humanist weddings, we need a law that works for all people who want to marry and we hope this case will lead to reform."

It is hoped that the case will lead to a change in the law in time to help deal with the huge backlog in marriage services due to the coronavirus pandemic.