UK lesbians seek ruling on Canadian marriage

LONDON - A lesbian couple married in Canada will seek to make British legal history today when they mount a High Court challenge to have their marriage legalised in Britain.

University professors Sue Wilkinson and Celia Kitzinger married in August 2003 while Wilkinson was working in British Columbia, one of the first places in the world to recognise same sex marriage.

Wilkinson and Kitzinger's marriage is fully recognised in Canada, but British law says that same-sex couples who legally marry overseas are to be treated in the UK only as having formed a civil partnership.

"A different-sex couple married in Canada would automatically have their marriage recognised as a marriage in the UK," Wilkinson said.

"We believe that to operate a different set of rules for same-sex couples is profoundly discriminatory - an affront to social justice and human rights."

Since civil partnerships were introduced in Britain, gay and lesbian couples have had the same legal rights as heterosexual couples.

Lawyers acting for Wilkinson and Kitzinger, who have been together for 16 years, will seek a declaration of the validity of the marriage under the European Convention of Human Rights and the Human Rights Act.

An interim High Court ruling in April allowed their case to proceed, saying there was sufficient material for an argument based on principle.

The ruling said the requirement of the Civil Partnership Act that a marriage between same-sex partners abroad must be treated as a civil partnership in Britain and not as a marriage, was "on the face of it discriminatory on the grounds of sexual orientation".

Their case is one of several internationally aimed at securing the global recognition of Canadian same-sex marriages. There are also legal challenges pending in Ireland, Israel, New Zealand and Hong Kong, campaigners say.

- REUTERS