Same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland but not in Northern Ireland. Legislation to allow for the recognition of same-sex marriages in Northern Ireland has been debated in the Northern Ireland Assembly five times since 2012. On the first four of those occasions, only a minority of assembly members voted in favour of same-sex marriage, though the most recent vote on the issue in November 2015 saw a majority of MLAs vote in favour of same-sex marriage. On 1 October 2012, the first Northern Ireland Assembly motion regarding same-sex marriage was introduced by Sinn Féin and the Greens. The motion was defeated 50-45. On 29 April 2013,
Theresa May page of "The Times". May held the office of Minister for Women and Equality in parallel to her office of Home Secretary from 2010 to September 2012, when this role was taken over by Maria Miller. May's appointment as Minister for Women and Equality was criticised by some members of the LGBT rights movement, because she had voted against lowering the age of consent (in 1998) and against greater adoption rights for homosexuals (in 2002), though she had voted in favour of civil partnerships. May later stated, during an appearance on the BBC's "Question Time" in 2010, that she had