LONDON (AP) — Thousands are marching in Northern Ireland to demand that the region's leaders permit same-sex marriage.

The demonstrators in Belfast on Saturday want same-sex couples to be treated the same way in Northern Ireland as they are in the rest of the UK, where same-sex marriage is legal. The issue is a stumbling block to restoring Northern Ireland's Catholic-Protestant power-sharing administration, which has been suspended for more than two years.

Northern Ireland's 1.8 million people have been without a functioning administration since the government collapsed in January 2017 over a...