*Vermont civil unions have disappeared off the national news radar. Anyone know how they are working out? Issues, acceptance, problems?
A question about the term “married” as applicable to UK law. If a heterosexual couple have a civil wedding, do they get any difference in the law over a gay couple having a civil wedding?
Are the heterosexual couple allowed to call themselves married, whilst the homosexual couple are not allowed to call themselves married?
There’s a few misunderstandings here. Civil Partnerships, the new ‘gay weddings’, are only available to same-sex partners. There’s long been ‘civil weddings’, which simply means weddings outside of a religious setting, officiated by a registrar rather than a clergyman or other religious figure.
Thanks a lot, the similarity of terms got me confused. Shame, I hope they soon patch it up and have ‘civil wedings’ available for all.
Are civil partnerships officiated by the registrar? Is there any difference legally between a civil wedding and a civil partnership?
Yes, they’re officiated in the same way as civil wedding cermonies are, and generally in the same places, too. They are designed to give same-sex couple the same legal rights over things such as inheritance and tax as married couples have, but nobody dared call it a ‘marriage’ because that would spook the latent bigots in the population a bit too much.
I’m with Bippy. What’s the difference between a civil wedding and a civil partnership?
I’ve participated personally in a civil wedding in England - I still don’t get the difference.
The religious aspect and the ceremony is the only difference I have seen given to distinguish CP from marriage. That’s the same difference as between a church and civil marriage. Though in the case of the CP I think you just sign the book - also the case for state marriages in some countries outside of the U.K.
I suspect the difference is just the name - to avoid controversy about “gay weddings”. When that is what everyone calls them any way, it seems rather pointless.
Yes, it’s just about the name. It’d have never had such a smooth ride through parliament if it had been called marriage. If we’re being picky, civil wedding are also just about the ceremony and the certificate, and the subsequent legal standing.
OK - thanks for the clarification, I must have mis-read, sorry. How’s about that for inequality between the sexes eh ?
I’m not “married” either (an American) because we did not have, or want, a religious ceremony. Our arrangement is no more or no less “married” than Elton’s, except for the label. Marriage is a religious thing. The rest of us have civil partnerships.
Yeah - you could rant and rave with Prince Philip about that 
Is there any move to allow civil unions to occur within Churches or other places where weddings can normally occur? (assuming the Church/temple/etc. agrees to host the civil union.
I hope it only takes a short time before the name of civil union and civil wedding become synonymous and interchangeable.
Doubt it. Churches are private clubs and wouldn’t want to detract from their viewpoint that god sanctifies the union. I suppose if they wanted to make a few bucks, they could rent the place out for civil unions, but…why would anyone want to get married in a church if they didn’t buy into the whole religious thing?
I’m sure some homosexual couples are very religious, and some religious denominations are very homosexual friendly.
There’s no “move to allow” civil partnerships to take place in churches, which seems to suggest forcing it on the churches. Any move would be within an individual church structure, for them to recognise the partnership as a religious marriage. And this ain’t going to happen any time soon in the CofE or any other major religion, but there’s quite probably some small or independent groups who will do so.
But there are sympathetic ministers of religion who will give same-sex couples a church blessing- that, combined with a civil partnership is pretty much exactly what Charles and Camilla got, so it might not be called a “marriage” but it’s as close as makes no difference.