Ban on church civil partnerships voted down by House of Lords

Next battle: End the ban on same-sex civil marriage

London – 3 March 2010

Last night’s vote by the House of Lords to end the ban on religious
civil partnerships is “another advance for gay equality and religious
freedom,” said human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell of the LGBT
rights group OutRage!

“Allowing faith organisations to make their own decisions on whether
to conduct same-sex civil partnerships is the democratic and decent
thing to do.

“By banning religious civil partnerships, the current law is denying
religious bodies the right to treat gay couples equally. It is forcing
them to discriminate, even when many of them do not want to.

"The Quakers, Unitarians, Metropolitan Community Church and liberal
synagogues wish to conduct civil partnership ceremonies and should be
allowed to do so.

“Following a change in the law, we expect civil partnerships will be
conducted by gay-affirmative religions, including the Unitarians and
Quakers, and some Anglican churches and liberal synagogues.

“Our next goal is to secure marriage equality, to end the prohibition
on lesbian and gay couples having a civil marriage in a registry
office. Already, 61% of the British public believe that same-sex
couples should be able to have a civil marriage, according to an
opinion poll conducted by Populus and published by The Times in June
last year.

See here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6586450.ece

“The gay rights group OutRage! is planning to challenge the bans on
same-sex civil marriage and opposite-sex civil partnerships in the
European Court of Human Rights. Our aim is full equality for
homosexual and heterosexual couples. We hope to file an appeal to the
European Court by summer of this year. Already, four couples have
agreed to join the legal challenge.

“If we win in the European Court of Human Rights, the government will
be required to change the law to allow gay partners to have a civil
marriage and to allow heterosexual couples to have a civil
partnership. It will ensure, at last, full equality in the laws
governing relationship recognition and rights.

“Last month, the Greens became the first and and only political party
in Britain to officially support an end to the ban on civil
partnerships being conducted in places of worship. Their Spring party
conference voted almost unanimously to end the prohibition on
religious civil partnerships.

“I may disagree with religion and want a separation of religion from
the state, but I still object to religious same-sex couples being
denied the option of having a civil partnership in their place of
worship. If that is what they want, it is up to them. Exclusions based
on faith or sexuality are wrong,” said Mr Tatchell.

Courtesy of

Peter Tatchell

OutRage