Judge to rule whether heterosexual couple can be allowed to form civil partnership

Jan 18, 2016 by Jill

By Susie Mesure, Independent:

When Charles Keidan tried to pop the question to Rebecca Steinfeld, she cut him off: “I was like, ‘No! I was going to do this!’.” she laughed, remembering how she dropped to one knee during a snowy walk in the French Pyrenees. The pair, who Keidan concedes “proposed to each other”, strive for equality in their relationship. So much so that marriage, with its patriarchal baggage, is out of the question, despite that engagement.

Instead, the duo want a civil partnership, much like the thousands of same-sex couples who have stuck with the union despite the legalisation of gay marriage two years ago. But they have a problem: “I’m female and Charlie is male,” Steinfeld said. And heterosexual couples are banned, by law, from forming civil partnerships, which Steinfeld calls “discrimination”.

This week, the couple will ask a High Court judge to rule on whether their human rights are being infringed, a decision that could affect three million heterosexual couples who live together outside wedlock. “It’s a basic equality issue. Any social institution should be open to everybody regardless of sex or sexual orientation,” Steinfeld explained. The pair, who have an eight-month-old baby, launched the legal challenge 13 months ago after an official at the Kensington and Chelsea Register Office turned them away because the 2004 Civil Partnership Act stipulates that only same-sex couples are eligible.

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