UK Gay Unions Bill Passes Final Hurdle
by Peter Moore 365Gay.com from the Web, November 17, 2004
London -- The House of Lords Wednesday night passed legislation giving same-sex couples most of the same rights as married people.
The bill now awaits royal assent before becoming law.
The legislation was approved by the House of Commons last week.
The bill will create a civil partner registry. Gay couples would have inheritance rights to their partners' estates, hospital visitation rights, and the right to receive the spouses share of their partner's pension.
A last minute attempt to emasculate the legislation failed on a vote along party lines.
Conservative Lords attempted to extend the bill to include siblings and caregivers.
The Conservatives accused the government of attempting to ram through Parliament special rights for a small interest group it hoped to capitalize on in the upcoming election.
During the heated three-hour debate, Baroness O’Cathain called the bill discriminatory because it would give inheritance and capital gains tax advantages to same sex couples that were not available to sisters, brothers, parents and children who looked after each other.
Other Conservatives said that the bill amounted to marriage by another name.
“There is a clear distinction between these provisions and those of marriage," snapped back Home Office Minister Baroness Scotland of Asthal.
A similar attempt to weaken the bill was made by a group of Conservatives in the Commons last week.
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