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LONDON - The number of gay weddings in the UK has plummeted by more than 50 per cent in the past year.
Civil partnerships became legal for homosexuals in December 2005, allowing them to acquire the same sorts of tax and pension rights as straight married couples.
Initially, thousands of gay and lesbian couples held ceremonies.
However, a survey by the Local Government Association found that all the 40 councils across England they surveyed had experienced a fall in the number taking place - the figures show an average drop of 55 per cent in 2007 from 2006.
The largest fall was 90 per cent in Bracknell, Berkshire, and the smallest was 31 per cent in Barnet, north London. Brighton recently celebrated becoming the first place to host 1000 civil partnerships. But while 636 gay couples tied the knot in Brighton and Hove in 2006, only 320 did so in 2007.
"The introduction of civil partnership legislation prompted an initial rush for couples who wanted to register as soon as possible," said a council spokeswoman. "Civil partnerships have become an accepted part of our society and we're very happy to have played a part helping couples to achieve this."
Figures from the Office for National Statistics confirm the downward trend. They show that while 16,100 couples formed a civil partnership in the UK in 2006, at an average of 4000 every three months, just 4060 did so in the first half of last year.
"One reason for the decline may be that some gay people aren't interested in formalising their relationship," said Tony Grew, editor of the pinknews.co.uk gay website. "Some don't want to have all the formality of a civil partnership because they think it's the death knell of a relationship."
Some political activists, such as Peter Tatchell, see civil partnerships as part of a process of "assimilation" or integration into wider society that they reject in favour of a proudly "queer" lifestyle. Ben Summerskill, chief executive of the gay rights lobby group Stonewall, said: "There was a big pent-up demand from couples in long-term relationships to form a civil partnership, which is why so many did it early on after the law changed in late 2005, so a tailing-off would be logical."
Summerskill pointed out that when civil partnerships were introduced the Government predicted that about 11,000 to 22,000 would take place by 2010.
"But we have already far exceeded that number." There were 1950 in late 2005, 16,100 in 2006 and more than 4000 early last year.
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