Civil Partnerships Fell in UK by 18 Percent Last Year

The UK saw civil partnership registrations decline by a fifth last year, the Guardian reports:

"A total of 33,956 partnerships between gay couples have been formed since the law first allowed them in December 2005. The fall in England and Wales, where 6,588 partnerships were formed last year, was 17%; in Scotland 24% and in Northern Ireland 23%, the provisional figures reveal. In 2008, men made up 53% of those forming civil partnerships, down from 55%, with the largest numbers being registered in the London borough of Westminster (234 between men and 48 between women) and Brighton and Hove (158 involving men and 116 women). The figures also show that 180 civil partnerships were dissolved last year, compared with 42 the year before. Most involved female couples."

Said activist Peter Tatchell: "After civil parternships were legislated there was a huge surge of couples who had been together for decades who suddenly wished to take advantage of the legal recognition. Now we've settled into a pattern of civil partnership take-up which reflects people who have recently fallen in love for the first time. He added that other couples are now waiting in the hope the law will change regarding same-sex marriage. Initially most were ready to settle for civil partnerships. After years of no legal rights they were desperate to get something. Now the mood is shifting in favour of full legal equality - the right to get married in a registry office on the same level as heterosexual couples."

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