Northern Ireland

This Act legalized same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland. §8(1) of the Act requires the Secretary of State to make regulations in respect of same sex marriage, to come into force on or before 13 January 2020, specifically to make provision so that two persons of the same sex are eligible to marry and two persons who are not of the same sex may form a civil partnership in Northern Ireland.

The Sexual Offences (Northern Ireland) Order 2008 established rape as a statutory offence in place of the common law crime. Only a person with a penis can commit rape (Art. 5). All of the other sexual offences criminalize non-consensual acts (assault by penetration, sexual assault, and causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent) that could be committed by women and gender-neutral persons, but the law uses only male pronouns to refer to the perpetrator (Arts. 6-8).