British singer Elton John (left) and partner David Furnish who plan to marry tomorrow. John said the ceremony would be a small, private affair involving only himself and Furnish and their parents acting as witnesses. - REUTERS
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP)
SIR ELTON John and Canadian filmmaker David Furnish will be among several hundred gay marriages in the United Kingdom this week as a new era in gay rights was opened yesterday.
Northern Ireland, one of the last regions in the United Kingdom to legalise homosexuality in 1982, became the first to grant gay couples the same legal protections as married heterosexuals - a measure already in force in many other European countries. Scotland will follow Tuesday, and England and Wales on Wednesday - the day Elton John is to wed Furnish.
RESPONSE TO LEGALISATION
"We are delighted. Here's to many more," said Shannon Sickels, a New York playwright, after she and her Northern Ireland partner, Grainne Close, became the first public celebrants of a legally binding gay partnership at Belfast City Hall.
After a 30-minute ceremony featuring such songs as Dolly Parton's Touch Your Woman, the couple posed for photographers displaying their matching rings of diamond and platinum, then dashed off for a reception. Scores of family, friends and gay rights activists tossed flowers and rainbow-coloured ribbons out of support.
"This is about making a choice to have our civil rights acknowledged and respected and protected as any human being," said Sickels, 27, who met her 32-year-old partner in New York four years ago.
But in keeping with the conservatism of Northern Ireland society, their landmark festivities drew a few dozen Protestant evangelicals who sang hymns and waved "Sodomy is sin" placards.
Gay rights activists countered with their own bullhorn-assisted chants of support. A few donning Hitler-style moustaches shadowed the evangelical crowd waving satirical placards that read, "Earth is flat" and "Bring back slavery."
Tomorrowsday, the General Register Office in England says 687 same-sex unions will gain legal recognition. By far the most intensely watched ceremony will be for Elton John and Furnish, his partner of 12 years. They plan to confirm their civil partnership at the Guildhall in the royal London suburb of Windsor, the same spot where Prince Charles wed Camilla Parker Bowles in April.
SAME-SEX PARTNERSHIPS
Denmark in 1989 became the first country to legislate for same-sex partnerships. Several other European Union members have followed suit: Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
In the United States, more than a dozen states recognise some form of domestic partnerships or civil unions, but 11 states voted in November to ban gay marriage.
