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When Is A Wedding Not A Wedding?
Gay couples registering for civil partnerships at Lisburn Council will not be allowed to use the wedding room following a move from Alliance councillor Seamus Close. While gay rights groups cried 'discrimination,' Close claims the move simply draws a distinction between marriage and civil partnerships.
Close said that confusing language has been used throughout the passage of the Civil Partnership Act, as people referred to 'gay weddings'. Rather than weddings, these ceremonies will be same-sex registrations under the Civil Partnership Act. Therefore the registrations will not take place in the council's wedding room, the Cherry Room, but instead take place in the registrar's office.
Follow up:
"My objection is that there's a lot of interchange of language used here. People are already referring to same-sex marriages, which is a total and absolute contradiction of terms. A wedding is a union between a man and a woman.
Under the Civil Partnership Act, this is same-sex registration. So it's to draw that distinction and it's to afford the proper dignity and distinction to a wedding as opposed to a civil partnership."Seamus Close (Alliance), Lisburn Councillor
Sean Moran from the Rainbow Project in Londonderry said "Same gender couples are not looking for heterosexual marriages, it's something different. We want our relationships recognised by law to protect us and give us the rights as a couple." He went on to point out that while many councils in the UK are very accommodating, some same-sex couples decide it would be better to have the cermonial part of the day elsewhere.
The Civil Partnership Act was drawn up to afford individuals in registered homosexual relationships similar legal rights that married people have in regard to their partners.