Title: Civil Partnerships - 3rd Birthday
Tags: gaykeywest, civil partenerships, Duchess
Blog Entry: Happy Birthday - Civil Partnerships. Can you believe that is three years ago next week that the first Civil partnership took place here in the UK. Who would have thought, ten or even five years ago, that gay couples in their thousands would have legally tied the knot here is England. Meanwhile the pot continues to boil in California. A US group opposed to same-sex marriages has asked the California Supreme Court to annul thousands of gay marriages held in the state this year. In November a referendum was held, voters backed Proposition 8, a measure to amend the state constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman only. Thousands of same-sex couples had wed after the Supreme Court ruled in June that such marriages were permissible. A Proposition 8 campaign group says those unions should not be recognised. And so the row continues. On a purely legal and financial basis it cannot be denied that Civil Partnerships her in the UK have made the world of difference. Take for example comedy legend John Inman - who starred in TV sitcom Are You Being Served? - he left more than £2.8 million in his will. He left almost his entire estate to partner Ron Lynch. Ron and John underwent a civil partnership ceremony in December 2005 at London's Westminster register office. If they had not been in a partnership, the taxman would have taken 40 per cent of everything the actor left over the £285,000 inheritance tax limit at the time of his death. Before the Civil partnership act gay men wishing to leave their estate to their partners would have to pay full inheritance tax while married men or women paid nothing on cash left to their spouses. On a more personal level many gay couples do not find it so easy. Many are confused at the correct language to use when describing civil partnerships and some are forced into revealing their sexual orientation in situations which required disclosure of marital or partnership status.
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