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Civil partnerships have been legal in England and Wales since 2005. CPs granted many of the same rights as marriages, without permitting the use of the word itself. The 2004 Civil Partnership Act also prohibited religious iconography or terminology being used in CP ceremonies. They were strictly secular, robbing LGBT couples of reciting the same time-honoured vows as straight folk. Nonetheless, within the first decade, over 60,000 civil partnerships had been formed. (more…)

One of the core aims of the queer emancipation movement, following the decriminalisation of homosexuality, was same-sex partner recognition. Marriage, the state previously reserved for long-term heterosexual domestic partners, has obvious religious connotations, but it also comes with a number of additional rights granted by the state, including but not limited to tax-free inheritance, next-of-kinship (which enables everything from hospital visitation to deciding if it’s time to pull the plug), joint tax filing, joint insurance, joint ownership of property, and so on. (more…)

Axel and Eigil Axgil are commonly considered the first couple who legally entered a same-sex partnership, in Denmark in 1989. The history of legal same-sex unions, however, dates back far beyond the modern era of civil partnerships and gay marriage. (more…)