NYT/Reuters: Gay Couples Prepare to Tie the Knot (in Britain)

Gay Couples Prepare to Tie the Knot
By REUTERS
Published: December 4, 2005

BELFAST (Reuters) - Hundreds of gay couples in Britain are preparing to make it official on Monday when they can apply for legal status under a new law allowing same-sex civil partnerships.

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

After a two-week waiting period they will be able to legally register their partnerships for the first time....

***

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

Civil partnership is formed when a couple sign certain documents in an exclusively civil procedure, whereas a marriage becomes binding when partners exchange spoken words in a civil or religious ceremony.


http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-life-britain-gay.html

What is wrong with this fucking country?

If I was Britain, I'd start preparing for an invasion by the Ralph Reed army.

Seriously. I'd love to see Reed/Falwell/Robertson and the rest of the Talibornagains try to start up over here, almost as much as I'd like to see Ann Coulter and the other vermin like her do a UK speaking tour. It would make for great theatre.

Bring it on, I say. There are plenty of Christians in the UK, but there will never be the same widespread fundamentalist religious insanity here that you find in the States (at least not of the Christian variety).

Thousands of gay couples will publish their "wedding bans" today as the long-awaited Civil Partnership Act comes into force. Same-sex couples who register their names with local councils today will be able to marry from 21 December, after an obligatory 15-day "cooling off" period.

The legalisation of gay marriage is expected to generate a multimillion-pound economy in wedding ceremonies, receptions and gifts, with businesses keen to cash in on the market. With some couples having waited more than 40 years for the right to marry, industry observers say the power of the "pink pound" is likely to soar.

The Act gives gay couples the same inheritance, pension, tax and benefit rights as married heterosexuals.

They will also have legal "next of kin" status and, in the event of separation, will have rights over each other's assets and access arrangements to any children from the relationship.


http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article331215.ece

Long life and happiness~

cheers! :toast: Im thrilled! :woohoo:

Three couples hoping to make history by being the first to form civil partnerships have registered their intention to 'marry' as new laws came into force.

.......

Gay lobby groups welcomed the Civil Partnerships Act, which gives same-sex couples the right to register their union. It also entitles them to social security and pension benefits, parental responsibility for a partner's children and the same exemption as married couples on inheritance tax.

Andy Forrest, communications officer for gay rights organisation Stonewall, said: "We are thrilled. The Act is very much what we wanted.

"It's not just about rights, it's also about people caring and being financially responsible for a partner."


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=4UQUECWXGVQATQFIQMFCFFWAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2005/12/05/ucivil.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/12/05/ixportaltop.html

wearing wigs, diva makeup and buttless chaps.

Can't they get any new footage? I have nothing against drag queens and a nicely filled out pair of chaps, but if that's all the people in the midwest see of us, we have the MSM to thank for it, and the drag/leather queen per capita ratio is actually low enough to be 100% not representative.

... do your job and ask Scotty what the president thinks of this ungodlydevelopment. Make him answer.