UK marks 20 years since same-sex civil partnerships became law
It was a landmark moment LGBTQ+ rights across the country
Last updated 11 hours ago
The landmark Civil Partnership Act is marking twenty years since it first became law.
This legislation was a breakthrough in 2005, giving same-sex couples similar rights to married heterosexual couples for the very first time.
In fact, the Act only permitted same-sex couples to form civil partnerships when it first came into force, and it took fourteen years to roll this out to heterosexual couples too.
It's been described by many LGBTQ+ organisations as a landmark moment for queer rights in the UK.
At 11:00 GMT on 5 December 2005, Matthew Roche and Christopher Cramp also officiated their civil partnership in West Sussex, at St Barnabas Hospice.
Under the legislation, the statutory 15-day waiting period was waived because Matthew Roche was suffering from a terminal illness.
He died the following day.
Just over a week later, on December 19th, 2005, Shannon Sickels, a New York playwright, and Grannie Close, a social worker, recorded their union in a private ceremony at Belfast City Hall, before posing for photographers and the press, waiting to witness the historic moment.
It wasn't until December 20th when the first partnerships formed in Great Britain, starting with Scotland, before the inaugural ceremonies the next day in England and Wales.
Mainland England's first ever union involved two men - Terry George and Michael Rothwell - in Leeds on December 21st, at precisely 8AM, in what demonstrated a huge leap forward for equality and rights of queer people.
It was the week hundreds across the country committed their vows, whilst Elton John and his long-time partner David Furnish hosted a fabulous, star-studded ceremony in Windsor.
This was the hottest ticket in town, with the Beckham family, Ed Sheeran, David Walliams, Sir Ian McKellen and designer Jasper Conran all in attendance.
It was a powerful step in advancing the rights of LGBTQ+ people up and down the country - and a lot has changed in those two decades - most notably back in 2014, when same-sex couples could get married for the very first time.
Marriage ceremonies across England and Wales were allowed from March 29th, with Scotland following later that year.
It wasn't until 2020 for Northern Ireland to follow suit, in what many equality organisations described as an 'historic moment', after years of campaigning.
However, the progress to achieving equal rights hasn't been easy, and - as the human rights group, the Peter Tachell Foundation outlined a decade ago on the tenth anniversary of the first UK civil partnerships - ensuring equal legal rights didn't necessary ensure equality.
An 'important, valued advance'
Director, Peter Tachell, said back in 2015, before civil partnerships were expanded to heterosexual couples: "Civil partnerships were an important, valued advance. From 2005, for the first time in the UK, same-sex couples were able to secure legal recognition and rights. Previously, their relationships did not exist in the eyes of the law.
"This meant that lesbian and gay partners were not legally recognised as next-of-kin, which often caused huge distress and disadvantage in the event of one of them being hospitalised or dying.
"Despite their benefits, civil partnerships were not equality.
"They enshrined (and still enshrine) pension inheritance discrimination. In the event of a civil partner dying, the surviving partner does not have the same right as a married heterosexual person to inherit their deceased partner’s full pension. This can leave them much worse off financially.
"Moreover, civil partnerships were, in part, introduced to avoid having to concede the demand for same-sex marriage. They created a segregated, mutually-exclusive two-tier system of relationship law: marriages for opposite-sex couples only and civil partnerships for same-sex couples only.
"Despite calls to scrap civil partnerships, it is important they continue. Some straight and gay couples prefer them. They don’t like the sexist, patriarchal history of marriage and the language of husband and wife. Civil partnerships are more modern and egalitarian, without the negative traditions and connotations of matrimony.
"In the government’s 2012 public consultation, two-thirds of respondents wanted them retained – and opened up to opposite-sex couples. In a follow up 2014 consultation, of currently unmarried heterosexuals, 63% said they would choose marriage and 20% indicated they would prefer a civil partnership, if it was available."
Today, civil partnerships still have their place in society - and despite, being legally similar, converting union into a marriage is a choice many opt for.
Civil partnerships are also not recognised in many countries broad in the same way marriages are - so for couples moving abroad, they might have to convert their union into a marriage to enjoy the benefits of equivalent rights overseas.
But - what is clear is that they have been a 'resounding success' - having formed 60,000 couples in the decade since the very first one, in 2015.
A 2014 report by the London School of Economics looked at their legacy, with one of the key findings bolstering the rights and entitlements available to same-sex pairs, whilst also providing a way of family and friends celebrating a relationship, no matter their gender or sexuality.
Mike Thomas noted civil partnerships have helped cement social bonds - and despite all of the legal benefits and cultural significance of marriage, that's only become a more equal reality through the stepping stones we've taken as a society, up and down the UK.
Civil partnerships have created an alternative offering - and status - to more traditional unions of two people.
But despite marriages superseding almost all of the benefits of civil partnerships, and one in eight converting their partnership by the middle of 2015, it's the latter which set the precedent all the way back in 2005.