Lesbians Fail To Have "Marriage" Recognized In UK
Nidhi Sharma - All Headline News Staff Writer London, UK (AHN) - An attempt by a lesbian couple to legalize their Canadian marriage in Britain turned futile on Monday when London's High Court ruled that giving legal recognition to gay marriages would "fail to recognize physical reality." The couple Sue Wilkinson, 52, and Celia Kitzinger, 49 married in British Columbia in August 2003 but they lost their legal fight to have their union recognized in Britain. High Court Judge Mark Potter says, "The majority of people, or at least of governments ... regard marriage as an age-old institution, valued and valuable, respectable and respected, as a means not only of encouraging monogamy but also the procreation of children ... in a family unit in which both maternal and paternal influences are available." He continues, "Abiding single sex relationships are in no way inferior, nor does English law suggest that they are by according them recognition under the name of civil partnership." The new laws that were introduced in Britain last year does regards same-sex couples legal status through "civil partnerships" but unlike those in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Canada, Britain's same-sex civil partnership is not a marriage. The lawyers are of the view that the couple's Canadian marriage should not be "downgraded" to what they considered the "lesser substitute" of a civil partnership as they have been together for 16 years. |
