U.K. to let gays have church civil ceremonies

Posted 5h 58m ago |

LONDON (AP) — Gay couples are to be allowed civil partnership ceremonies in churches, Britain's government said Thursday — erasing some of the last remaining distinctions between gay partnerships and traditional marriages.

Although marriage and civil partnership are already similar under British law, civil partnership ceremonies are currently not allowed to have religious references, are banned from churches, and must take place in a public building overseen by a government registrar.

The change, being introduced under equality laws, will give same-sex couples the chance to tie the knot in religious buildings — although the government stressed that churches can opt out if they wish to.

"No religious group will be forced to host a civil partnership registration, but for those who wish to do so this is an important step forward," said Home Secretary Theresa May.

The change is a first step toward making civil partnerships more equal to marriages and there may be further changes to the law in this direction, the Home Office said.

In Britain, only heterosexual couples can get married, while civil partnership is available only to same-sex couples. Activists argue both should be open to all couples.

Gay rights campaigners have welcomed the move, but the Catholic Church and British Muslim groups have said they are strongly opposed to same sex unions of any kind. Some activists have complained that authorities could have gone further and given the green light to gay marriage.

"The government could have taken a bold new initiative to ensure that both straight and gay couples have the option of marriage," said Peter Tatchell, an activist who coordinates the Equal Love campaign — which seeks to end what it calls sexual orientation discrimination in both civil marriage and civil partnership law.

Britain's civil partnership law, introduced in 2005, already gives gay couples the same legal protection, adoption and inheritance rights as heterosexual married partners.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011 ... -gay_N.htm