UK gay couples take advantage of legal status

LONDON - A terminally ill gay man given just days to live became the first to take advantage of a new law giving same-sex couples legal status.

Couples could apply to register their partnership from yesterday, but must wait two weeks for move to take effect.

Cancer patient Matthew Roche, 46, was given special dispensation to waive the waiting period and tie the knot with his partner of seven years Christopher Cramp, 37, because he was not expected to live long enough.

"We are extremely happy and feel a great sense of achievement," Roche said after the ceremony at St Barnabas Hospice in Worthing.

Hospice spokeswoman Janet Parsons said Roche was in the advanced stages of terminal cancer and was not expected to survive much longer.

"The ceremony was both sad and happy," she said. "They have known each other for seven years and always intended to do this if it became legal."

The new law gives homosexual couples the same property and inheritance rights as married heterosexual couples and entitles them to the same pension, immigration and tax benefits.

A SPECIAL DAY

"This is a highly symbolic and very special day," said Alan Wardle of the gay pressure group Stonewall.

"It sends out a signal to society that lesbian and gay relationships are recognised, valued and treated with respect," he said as hundreds of couples signed up.

Equality Minister Meg Munn said: "This is an important piece of legislation that gives legal recognition to relationships that were invisible in the eyes of the law."

Munn, who said the government expected up to 4,500 couples to sign up in the first year, told the BBC: "It is just as serious a commitment to make as marriage."

Unlike those in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Canada, Britain's civil partnership is not a marriage.

The procedure is an exclusively civil one in Britain, with the partners signing certain documents, whereas a marriage becomes binding when partners exchange spoken words in a civil or religious ceremony.

Among the first couples planning to tie the knot are pop star Elton John and his partner David Furnish in a ceremony on December 21, the earliest possible date to do so in England.

"We're very lucky to live in Britain. I cannot think of a more tolerant place to live," John said.

A FAMILY AFFAIR

The flamboyant star told the gay magazine Attitude their ceremony would be "very private, a small family affair, David's parents, my parents and the two of us. They'll be our witnesses."

Pop star George Michael has also said he plans to get hitched to Kenny Goss, his lover for the past nine years, in a private ceremony.

"I'm sure Kenny and I will be doing the old legal thing but we won't be doing the whole veil and gown thing," he said at the London premiere of a documentary about his pop career.

The Church of England has provoked fury among Anglican traditionalists by allowing gay priests to register under the new civil partnership law as long as they remain celibate.

It provoked the ire of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Cardiff Peter Smith who said: "What the government should do in terms of public policy is support marriage rather than undermine it."

The Times, renowned as the mouthpiece of the British Establishment, broke new ground when three gay couples placed civil partnership announcements in its Births, Deaths and Marriages column.

- REUTERS