Response to gay partnership laws mixed

Roger and Percy: We do

Roger Lockyer and Percy Steven have been waiting 40 years for this moment. At 8am on 21 December, the pensioners (Roger is 78, Percy 66) will become one of the first gay couples in Britain to formally register their relationship as a civil partnership.

"I felt quite certain from almost the first time I met him that this was someone I wanted to live with," said Lockyer. "That never wavered. Now we will be able to assert to the world that we are a proud, gay couple."

The Civil Partnership Act, which was passed in November last year, gives same-sex couples the same tax rights as heterosexual married couples. From yesterday, gay couples were able to tell register offices of their aim to form a civil partnership. After 15 days they will be able to do so.

Lockyer and Steven have lived through every stage of gay liberation. When they first began their relationship, homosexuality was still illegal.

"There was always the threat of blackmail," said Lockyer, a historian. "But there was a very big gay sub-culture. I didn't feel at all apprehensive. Percy and I just behaved as any other courting couple would."

They were introduced by a mutual friend in 1966. "Percy and I were invited to a luncheon and got on very well. It went swimmingly from then.

"Over the years we have had our ups and downs. He walked out on me once or twice. They just served to strengthen the relationship. We are extraordinarily happy."

Steven said they were registering their relationship for political reasons as much as personal ones. "Up until now if you are gay you have always been a second-class citizen. We paid tax but were denied rights. For me, the partnership is about being given our rights in the modern world.

"Maybe there is now a formal recognition. It may take away the innate or sublimated distaste for gay people some older people still have."


Colin and Justin: We don't

Television presenters Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan have been together for 20 years and plan to stay together for the rest of their lives.

They have even considered starting a family. However, there will be no civil ceremony.

"Colin and I have opted not to," said Ryan, 38. "We are of the mindset that if it is not broken, don't fix it. We have a very strong and fantastic relationship. Everything is great - there is no reason to change anything."

They have already discussed adopting a child but are adamant about not registering their partnership. They will lose out on "next of kin" rights that other gay couples will now have. They will not benefit from rights to each other's pensions and will be liable for inheritance tax if one of them dies.

But McAllister, 37, and Ryan denied that this would be a problem. "We wrapped our wills together and property is in both names," McAllister said. "Neither of us wants to leave the other with any financial problems."

They both believe that gay couples should be able to marry in the same way as heterosexual couples.

Although the rights and responsibilities are exactly the same in a civil partnership as in a traditional marriage, some gay rights campaigners have argued that the legislation does not go far enough.

Ryan said: "Civil partnerships are not the miracle that everyone thinks they are. I want everyone to have the same, whether they are gay or straight. It is a step in the right direction, but it is not the full recipe.

"It would be inelegant of me to be dismissive, but it is only a legal pairing. It is not gay marriage. Why should I be less entitled to marriage than you? It is staggeringly unfair.

"A lot of people are rejoicing - at long last it is an opportunity to say we are together - and it is wonderful, but it is not enough."

- INDEPENDENT

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A very civil affair

* Britain's new law, which came into force yesterday, gives homosexual couples the same property and inheritance rights as married heterosexual couples
* They are also entitled to the same pension, migration and tax benefits
* Unlike in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Canada, A British civil partnership is not a marriage
* Pockets of resistance to same-sex partnerships and to homosexuality remain, not least in Northern Ireland
* Homosexuality was legalised in Northern Ireland only in 1982 - 15 years after England and Wales
* At the time the Democratic Unionist Party, run by Protestant cleric Ian Paisley, ran a "Save Ulster from Sodomy" campaign
* The DUP, the province's largest political party, opposed the civil partnership legislation but says it supports equality.

- REUTERS