A rchive Date
[ 30-06-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Britain ]
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[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-730959,00.html
Gay ‘marriages’ could end in divorce courts
Equal rights would come with legal responsibilities
By Richard Ford
July 01, 2003
GAY couples who “divorce” face paying alimony and maintenance for their former partner’s children under Government proposals published yesterday to give homosexual relationships legal recognition.
The plans for “gay marriages” will, for the first time, give recognised same-sex partnerships the same legal rights as heterosexual married couples.
Gay couples will be able to sign an official document at a register office in front of the registrar and two witnesses, although the Government insisted that it would not be an official ceremony.
The most far-reaching change to laws surrounding homosexuality since gay sex in private was legalised in the 1960s will also see gay divorce cases in the law courts. Gays who split up will have access to legal aid to dissolve their partnerships.
The courts will have the power to order “divorcing” partners to divide their property and pay maintenance to dependants. The proposals will cover England and Wales but it is not yet clear whether they will cover gay relationships in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Civil partnerships will allow gay people to benefit from a dead partner’s pension, grant next-of-kin rights in hospitals and exempt them from inheritance tax on a partner’s home. The consultation paper does not use the term “gay marriage” but the civil partnerships have clearly been designed to be as close to a marriage contract as possible.
Jacqui Smith, deputy minister for women and equality, said that, under the Civil Partnership Registration Scheme, gay couples would gain both “rights and responsibilities”.
She said: “This is not about being ‘PC’ but about bringing law and practice into line with the reality of people’s lives. “Thousands of people are in long-term, stable, same-sex relationships. They are committed to each other in all areas of their joint lives, but their relationships are invisible in the eyes of the law.
“Civil partnership registration would underline the value of committed same-sex relationships. It would support stable families and show that we really value the diversity of the society we live in.”
Under the proposals, gay couples will be able to gain parental responsibility for each other’s children, be obliged to support each other financially and receive joint state pension benefits.
On the death of one partner, they will be able to claim pension rights and bereavement benefits, compensation for fatal accidents or criminal injuries, recognition under inheritance and intestacy rules, the right to register their partner’s death and be able to continue tenancy of a property.
The document predicted that the annual costs to private-sector employers could be up to £20 million a year.
The total annual costs to the Government would be £75 million in 2010, when the civil registration scheme is expected to begin, and up to £240 million in 2050. Those figures include state pension, public-service pension and dissolution costs.
The new gay marriages would be available to partners aged 16 and over, although 16 and 17-year-olds would have to obtain written consent from a parent or guardian.
There would also be limitations mirroring the incest laws
in heterosexual marriage, so that same-sex civil partnerships would be prohibited between blood or half-blood relations, adopted relatives and in other circumstances such as relationships arising from former marriages. Tim Yeo, the shadow trade and industry secretary, promised Conservative MPs a free vote on the proposals.
He said: “I welcome the recognition that people in committed relationships will now have the chance to clear up any doubts over areas such as their pension entitlements, inheritance issues and next-of-kin status. “It is right that those people that have been victims of discrimination in the past will now have this opportunity.”
Registration will be available only to homosexuals and not as an alternative to heterosexual marriage.
The gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said: “The Government should amend its proposals to ensure legal rights for all unwed couples, gay and straight. It is divisive, heterophobic and discriminatory to exclude unmarried heterosexual couples.”
More than 100,000 same-sex couples may have registered their partnerships by the end of the decade, according to government figures. The figure is based on the belief that a large number of homosexuals and lesbians will take advantage of the new scheme, which will give couples legal rights and responsibilities that they do not have under “symbolic” partnership schemes.
These exist in a number of centres in England and Wales, including London, Bath, Birmingham, Bath, and Brighton, but they have no legal status. In London 500 couples have registered since Ken Livingtone. the Mayor, set up a scheme in autumn 2001. Eight male couples and five female couples have since asked to be removed from the register
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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