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Same-Sex Couple "Married" in Canada Sues for Recognition of Lesbian "Marriage" in UK

LONDON, August 8, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A British lesbian couple, "married" in Canada, is suing to have their native country redefine their cohabitatory status as legally "married" under UK law.  Sue Wilkinson, 51, and Celia Kitzinger, 48, will launch their suit with the UK's High Court Friday, vowing to take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.

"Our relationship is not a civil partnership, it is a marriage," claimed Kitzinger, a sociology professor at Toronto's York University. "Any different-sex couple who did what we did would have had their marriage recognised. I feel insulted about being treated differently than a heterosexual couple," she told The Independent/

Under new UK legislation, the pair can register their same-sex relationship under the Civil Partnership Act, which confers all the benefits of marriage except in name.

The couple was "married" in British Columbia after that province made it legal for same-sex couples of mixed nationality to "marry" in 2003. B.C. was the first place where this was sanctioned, although the entire country of Canada now acts as a haven for same-sex activists from abroad who wish to challenge legislation in their native countries. The couple now lives in Yorkshire.

Homosexual rights activist Peter Tatchell called the UK ban on homosexual 'marriage', "institutional homophobia."

In related news, some of the UK's Anglican clergy who are in same-sex relationships have told the Church of England that they will not abide by the Church's directive - that same-sex couples remain celibate despite cohabitation.

In May, senior bishops of the Church of England, led by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said that clergy can "marry" their same-sex partners if they promise to refrain from sexual activities with their "spouse." In a decision that may go down in history as being the first to render Monty Python parodies redundant, Rowan Williams offered this compromise as a solution to the problem created by a British law that recognizes same-sex unions for purposes of tax and inheritance benefits. The decision is part of the Anglican bishops' draft Pastoral Statement on Civil Partnerships.

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