UK gay couples register launched

The ceremony was Britain's first registration of a same-sex couple

LONDON, England -- The UK's first register for gay couples has been launched with campaigners branding the move "historic."

The London Partnership Register, while not granting the same legal rights as an official marriage, is seen as a key step towards full equality for same-sex couples in Britain.

The first couple to sign were Ian Burford, 68, a former member of the English Shakespeare Company and Alexander Cannell, 62, a retired nursing manager of Clapham, south London, who have been together for 38 years.

Burford and Cannell, dressed in white suits, smiled throughout the five-minute ceremony conducted by Rob Coward, a specially trained Greater London Authority officer.

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Said Burford: "Alex is the most important person in my life and I am in his.

"Throughout that 38 years I have had his love, friendship and support and throughout what ever years are left to us he knows that he has my love, friendship and support."

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Playwright Linda Wilkinson, 49, and IT consultant Carol Budd, 48, of Bethnal Green, east London, who have been together for 16 years, took part in a second ceremony.

Guest of honour at both registrations was London Mayor Ken Livingstone, who had pledged to establish the register during his mayoral election campaign in May 2000.

'Not a wedding'

"It was a terribly happy day," said gay rights campaigner Angela Mason of Stonewall, who called the ceremonies "historic."

There were no trappings of a traditional marriage ceremony -- confetti and declaration of vows -- altough Livingstone did present the couples with flowers.

"This is not a wedding. We are not doing this to ape heterosexual marriage," Wilkinson and Budd told the Press Association after the five-minute, £85 ceremony.

"Love, trust and commitment -- these are the reasons that we have chosen to sign the partnership register."

Wilkinson and Budd seal their union with a kiss

"We are doing this because we believe it is another nail in the coffin of the prejudice that denies us our fundamental rights as human beings and makes us second-class citizens in our own country.

"Around the globe we can be criminalised for a kiss."

Sealing their registration with an embrace, the couple said: "This kiss is for equality and freedom. This kiss is for everyone around the globe who can never hope to dare."

The GLA hopes the register will be recognised by public bodies and be used in disputes over wills, property and succession rights.

A similar scheme in Paris, the Pacte Civil de Solidarité, has attracted more than 10,000 gay couples since being introduced in 1999.

Several other European countries, including Germany and The Netherlands, have already granted full marriage rights to gay couples.

The British parliament is now being pressed to extend the scheme nationally.

Jane Griffiths, Labour MP for Reading East, is to introduce a Bill in the House of Commons letting local authorities set up partnership registration schemes.

She told PA: "Most European states have introduced a scheme that allows people who cohabit to register their relationship and earn rights and responsibilities towards each other.

"Making this change is not undermining marriage but reflecting how adults organise their lives."