The Civil Partnership Act 2004
Civil partnerships have been possible in the UK since December 2005 when the UK Government finally decided to allow same sex couples to have many of the same rights as straight couples.
Essentially civil partnerships are like civil marriages except for a few legal technicalities. They bring the same rights as civil marriages, notably rights to survivor pensions, recognition for immigration purposes, equal treatment for tax purposes, including inheritance tax, protection from domestic violence. Where children are involved, a couple in a civil partnership are able to gain responsibility for each other's children, and will have a duty to provide reasonable maintenance for their partner and any children of the family.
The civil partnership ceremony itself is similar to a civil wedding. According to the Civil Partnership Act, it can't take place in a religious setting. However, it can be performed at a registry office or at a gay-friendly wedding venue, for example, a hotel or castle that has a wedding licence.
In terms of the wording, you can choose to include poems, love quotes or readings as long as they don't have a religious content. You need to agree these with the registrar beforehand.
What do I do?
To register your civil partnership, you need to go to the registration service where you live to give formal notice in person of your intention to register your partnership. You will be able to register 15 days after giving this notice, during which time the registration service will check your eligibility. Following this, you form your civil partnership by signing a document in the presence of a registration officer and two witnesses.
The ceremony can take place in licensed premises anywhere in the UK. However, your local authority will need to know the details of when and where you are going to register.
My partner Nicola and I set up the website: www.gay-friendly-wedding-venues.com before the law changed in 2005. We wanted to get married ourselves, but some enquiries we sent making it clear we were a lesbian couple were clearly just ignored. We could only conclude it was blind prejudice. We had a cause!
Since then Nicola has written a book A Very Pink Wedding, which has been very well received.
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Article by Laura McCaffrey, Gay Friendly Wedding Venues