Civil Partnerships
More than 15,000 gay couples became civil partners between December 2005 and September 2006, and it's predicted that the total for the full year will top 19,000.
A civil partnership is a legally-recognised union between two people of the same sex, effectively the right of marriage of gay couples.
The main partnership rights include social security and pension benefits, full recognition of life assurance schemes, ability to succeed to tenancy rights and next-of-kin visiting rights in hospitals.
But with it go responsibilities that may include providing reasonable maintenance for civil partners and children of the family; and ability to gain parental responsibility for a partners children.
Same sex couples who sign a partnership also can inherit from one another without a will.
The ceremony can be conducted at a Register Office or any venue licensed for civil ceremonies such as a country hotel, but only by a Registrar.
Each partner must sign the partnership papers in the presence of the registration officer and two witnesses. There is also a formal, court-based, process for dissolving the partnership along similar lines to a divorce.
Registrations of Civil Partnership can take place at any register office or council-approved venue in Norfolk but those involved must have lived in Norfolk for seven days before giving notice of a ceremony in the county.
After 15 clear days, the civil partnership can be registered by signing a schedule in front of a registration officer and two witnesses, with the option of a ceremony.
Ceremonies can be as simple or lavish as a couple desires, according to a spokeswoman for Norwich Register Office. She says: For a Civil Partnership the parties can just come in and sign the schedule if they wish, but also they can have words, readings or exchange tokens.
But while there are similarities in a Register Office wedding between a man and a woman, and a Civil Partnership such as the requirement to give a notice period, there are critical differences.
In a marriage you are married when the woman has said the final vows, the Register Office spokeswoman points out. With a Civil Partnership, it is in the signing of the schedule.
Yet many of the early occasions have proved a hit with Register Office staff. They have been extremely wonderful occasions, very happy for the people involved, adds the spokeswoman. And many of the people involved have waited a long time for such occasions.
The ceremonies became a reality with the Civil Partnership Act which was passed on November 18, 2004, and came into effect in December 2005.
By the end of the decade, up to 22,000 couples are expected to have undergone civil partnership ceremonies.
USEFUL WEBSITES:-
www.civilceremonies.co.uk
www.gay.com