Het couple’s campaign for civil partnership

As I explained back in May, marriage isn’t something I would personally consider or feel comfortable entering in to. I do believe that people should have the opportunity to designate (an)other individual(s) as their legal partner(s), however, so I was delighted to read about Katherine Doyle and Tom Freeman’s campaign to get a civil partnership, currently only available to same-sex couples. In their own words:

We have been together for three and a half years and would like to formalise our relationship. Because we feel alienated from the patriarchal traditions of marriage, we would prefer to have a civil partnership. As a mixed-sex couple, we are banned by law from doing so. By filing an application for civil partnership, we are seeking to challenge this discriminatory law.

Our decision is also motivated by the fact that we object to the way same-sex couples are prohibited from getting married. If we got married we would be colluding with the segregation that exists in matrimonial law between gay civil partnerships and straight civil marriage. We don’t want to take advantage of civil marriage when it is an option that is denied to our lesbian and gay friends.

Spot on! The gender restriction within marriage is also discriminatory towards trans people, who would currently find their marriage invalid should one partner in what was originally recognised as a heterosexual couple transition following the ceremony.

You can show your support for Tom and Kat on their facebook page, and there’s a Number10 petition you can sign calling for proper marriage equality.