Heterosexual Couple Win Equal Rights, Now Change The Law Immediately And Stop Wasting Even More Public Money

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5891087/Heterosexual-couple-WIN-right-enter-civil-partnership-instead-getting-married.html

[Bazile]

Consultant Surgeon - you done all right , i would say , sqad

[Bazile]

Sorry for my off topic questions , aog

[hereIam]

I know what Sqad means, I'm often glad that I am in the latter years of my life as I often hate the modern world, but it doesn't mean that I want to die !

[baza]

Sometimes I cannot understand todays world, my one hope left is that we leave the EU before I fall off the twig.

[sp1814]

NJ

A straight or gay couple who get married in 2018 will enjoy their partner’s pension rights going back to the day they started paying into whatever pension scheme they are using.

A gay couple (and now apparently a straight couple) who enter into a CP can only claim pension rights going back to 2005, which is when the Civil Partnership Act came into law.

Almost certainly irrelevant for younger couples, but something that really should be taken into consideration for older couples.

[New Judge]

Thanks, sp - I didn't know that.

[woofgang]

I just think of all the time and money that has been wasted over this matter....I have no idea why civil partnership for all wasn't allowed from the beginning.

[MallyJ]

Jolly good...it opens up all options for everyone.

[Old_Geezer]

No it isn't the same level of capitulation. It's a small step closer to simply signing an agreement between two people, no traditional marriage aspects. Not fully there yet but a step in the right direction. Of course if society wasn't so discriminatory there'd be no need to try to avoid being pushed into any declaration at all.

[tamborine]

ok for parents but what surname would their children have; maybe some choose mum or dad in the same family?

[New Judge]

"No it isn't the same level of capitulation."

Why not, OG? The two institutions are almost identical. In both cases the participants enter into a contract devised and sanctioned by the State. The process of extraction from that contract is virtually identical. I really don't see any difference.

Of course whether marriage/civil partnership (or the lack of it) brings with it discrimination is a totally different argument.

[naomi24]

//heteronormative//

I read that and thought ‘What on earth is heteronormative?’ Good old Wiki to the rescue:

//Heteronormativity is the belief that people fall into distinct and complementary genders (male and female) with natural roles in life. It assumes that heterosexuality is the only sexual orientation or the only norm, and that sexual and marital relations are most (or only) fitting between people of opposite sex.

Origin of the term: Michael Warner popularized the term in 1991, in one of the first major works of queer theory.//

Right. Onwards, What’s queer theory? Wiki led me here:

Queer theory is a field of critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s out of the fields of queer studies and women's studies. Queer theory includes both queer readings of texts and the theorisation of 'queerness' itself……queer theory builds both upon feminist challenges to the idea that gender is part of the essential self and upon gay/lesbian studies' close examination of the socially constructed nature of sexual acts and identities. Whereas gay/lesbian studies focused its inquiries into natural and unnatural behaviour with respect to homosexual behaviour, queer theory expands its focus to encompass any kind of sexual activity or identity that falls into normative and deviant categories.. …//

I thought I’d heard it all when I was introduced by someone here to the word ‘Cisgender’. Good old Wiki again: // denoting or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender corresponds with their birth sex.//

….aka ‘normal’.

Good grief! Confusion reigns supreme. Enough already!

[Zacs-Master]

These guys might be able to sort things out:

[Kromovaracun]

Sp

The pensions thing was overturned in the supreme court last year:

https://www.stonewall.org.uk/help-advice/partnership-rights/pensions

[New Judge]

Thanks kromo. I didn't know that either! I suppose I'm about where I started now!

[ludwig]

It's the right decision from the court to make access to civil partnerships equal to all, irrespective of sexuality.

I don't particularly care whether they're kept or abolished altogether, as long as it applies to everyone.

[Cloverjo]

After watching the news about this last night, OH asked me to be his Civil partner. I've been with him for 20 years. I didn't know what to say. Still don't!

[Mamyalynne]

Give it some thought Clover and see if it would be beneficial to you both - not sure if Congratulations are in order but if they are please accept mine.x

[Cloverjo]

Thanks, mamya. I don't know what to think, but better look into it I suppose.

[New Judge]

How would you feel if he'd asked you to marry him?