The Human Rights activist, Peter Tatchell has praised the Supreme Court ruling that mixed-sex couples should be allowed to have civil partnerships.
A straight couple, Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan, have won their legal case, which will allow them to have a Civil Partnership instead of a traditional marriage.
Up until now, the only couples permitted to have CPs were gay and lesbian couples.
It was a law introduced by the Labour government in 2004, before the Conservatives, under David Cameron were able to vote and pass Same-Sex marriage.
Civilly Partnered couples are entitled to many of the protections offered by marriage including, inheritance, tax, pension rights and next of kin arrangements.
Steinfeld and Keidan argued that the Civil Partnership act was unlawful before it was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Speaking about the ruling, leading Human Rights activist, Peter Tatchell said, “This is a victory for love and equality. It was never right to deny opposite-sex couples the option of having a civil partnership. In a democracy, we are all supposed to be equal before the law. It is wonderful news that the Supreme Court has ruled against the government and in favour of equal civil partnerships”.
This ruling overturns a previous judgement made by the Court of Appeal made in February 2017.
Peter Tatchell has supported Rebecca Steinfeld’s and Charles Keidan from the outset of their legal challenge in 2014.
Indeed, he championed the right of opposite-sex couples to have a civil partnership from the moment Tony Blair’s government announced in 2003 that the option would be available to same-sex couples only, condemning it as “blatant discrimination based on sexual orientation.”
Speaking about today’s victory in the Supreme Court, Mr Tatchell said, “The ban on opposite-sex civil partnerships was discrimination and a violation of human rights. It is outrageous that the government was unwilling to legislate equality and that this couple were forced to go to court to get a basic human right – the right to be treated equally in law.
“It was never fair that same-sex couples had two options, civil partnerships and civil marriages, whereas opposite-sex partners had only one option, marriage,” said Mr Tatchell.
In May THEGAYUK.com ran a poll of its readers which found that 62 percent of LGBT+ people who answer believed that Civil Partnerships should be open to all couples, while only eight percent believed that they should remain for just same-sex couples.
Thirty percent believed that Civil Partnerships should be scrapped altogether.
