Congratulations, Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan

[hipsterfun]

Who won the fight for mixed-sex civil partnerships

Congratulations and may you continue to be as happy as ever

(And thank you )

I would have chosen a CP if I wasn’t already married. We want the legal protections and had a small civil ceremony. Thank you Rebecca and Charles

My partner and I will be getting a civil partnership next Autumn thanks to Charles and Rebecca's efforts. I wish them all the best!

Thanks Scrimshaw and BoxedWine for your replies. Have always wanted a ‘low key’ affair for legal purposes only but wonder if that’s selfish and that we would be depriving our pre-teen/teenage kids an excuse for a party! Need to sort something. We don’t have wills either just a mortgage and a huge amount of collective debt. Need to get this sorted.

People seem really genuinely pissed off that het people can do this now and I don't understand why. It seems totally innocuous and doesn't impact on them in any way.

Fraggling - civil partnerships were created out of a desire to avoid allowing same-sex couples to marry. They were a second-best option given to same-sex couples for prejudiced /discriminatory reasons.
Now that gay marriage is legal, some people would have preferred that civil partnerships with their associated homophobic baggage were discontinued.

I agree avocado there is something about it that makes me uncomfortable.

Yes, there's not been much acknowledging of that on here over the past few days.

Absolutely decadeends, get sorted. That doesn't mean get married or have a CP necessarily, but at least a solicitor visit.

Now that gay marriage is legal, some people would have preferred that civil partnerships with their associated homophobic baggage were discontinued

Some might prefer that traditional marriage with its patriarchal baggage was discontinued rather than validated as the desirable norm.

Those people are being ridiculous then, given that UK CPs don't have any legal recognition in much of the world. That proposal would place UK residents in a position where they have no domestic access to the only legal contract that will afford state recognition of their partner relationships anywhere they travel. This protection would be limited to those who have the money and wherewithal to organise it internationally (and please nobody try and suggest that if you can manage a package holiday somewhere there'll be no barriers to you arranging a marriage contract abroad too).

It is a genuinely appalling idea, and not at all comparable to abolishing CP full stop. Which was at least practically doable, whatever one might feel about the fairness and desirability of it.

Women's rights per se don't have a fuck ton of legal recognition in many places in the world and indeed marriage is a patriarchal institution.

While true, this does not address the point made. If you deny people in the UK domestic access to the contract that affords them best legal recognition of their partnerships abroad, that decision is sooner or later going to cause trouble for some of them. Whilst doing nothing whatsoever about all the women in the world who have virtually no rights at all. You do not have to like marriage as an institution or the history of it to understand what a stupid idea this would be.

I wasn't stopping at the UK border.

Women will never be protected by running towards the patriarchy.

Nice slogan, but it would be of fuck all use to a British citizen abroad whose partner fell ill or died and found their civil partnership wasn't recognised and didn't allow them to be treated in the same way as a spouse. There's also no reason to suppose it would do anything at all to alleviate the impact of patriarchy.

The idea is a terrible one. There is no getting round that.