UK court to hear appeal about civil partnerships for straight couples
by Harriet Sherwood Guardian:
Six-year struggle for an option that gay partners already enjoy will face a new test this week.
A couple who have been living together for the past six years will this week demand the right to a civil partnership, arguing that they face discrimination under the present law, which gives gay couples the option of marriage or a civil partnership but denies the latter to heterosexual couples.
Earlier this year the high court ruled against a legal challenge to the Civil Partnership Act 2004 by Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan. On Wednesday their appeal against that ruling will be heard in the high court, with judgment expected to be reserved. The couple say they are prepared to take their case to the supreme court and the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.
“A civil partnership would reflect who we are,” Keidan told the Observer. “It’s a modern social contract that doesn’t have the associations of marriage but would give the protection that we and other cohabiting couples crave.”
The act states that civil partnerships that provide legal rights and obligations to couples regarding children, property and pensions would be available to “two people of the same sex”. It was passed in 2004 in response to demands from gay rights campaigners for legal recognition for unions between same-sex couples. Then in 2013 same-sex marriage was legalised, giving gay couples the option of marriage or a civil partnership. The latter continues to be denied to heterosexual couples.
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