Countdown to civil partnership: According to today’s Independent reports that Sir Elton John is to “marry” his partner David Furnish in St Petersburg this month have sparked outrage among Russian nationalists [Independent].
Also in today’s Independent: Roger Lockyer and Percy Steven have been waiting 40 years for this moment. At eight o’clock in the morning on 21 December, the pensioners will become one of the first gay couples in Britain to formally register their relationship as a civil partnership. In contrast, television presenters and property designers Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan have been together for 20 years and plan to stay together for the rest of their lives but won’t have a partnership.
In The Observer, Ben Summerskill says changing the law on same-sex relationships is the easy part. Changing the culture is harder [The Observer].
Finally, The Scotsman has a nice summary of the changes in the law: The introduction of the Civil Partnership Act on Monday is expected to see 16,500 Britons register as “civil partners” by 2010. That will grant gay and lesbian couples identical rights to married, heterosexual couples, including recognition of a civil partner as the next-of-kin, rights under the rules of intestacy, if a civil partner dies without a valid will, and adoption rights – as well as the same financial provision on any dissolution.
On this day…
2005: Disturbing half-naked men in the doors of Abercrombie…
2005: Flickr Christmas: Santa’s gathering in Liverpool 4
2004: The Da Vinci Code