Cities in race to
host first gay wedding
Brighton and
Westminster fight it out
Denis Campbell,
social affairs correspondent
The Observer, UK News
from the Web, November 13, 2005
At stake are millions of 'pink
pounds', massive media coverage, renown for tolerance and the status as the
country's symbolic gay capital -- all over where the first gay wedding will take
place.
The tussle between
Westminster and Brighton to stage
England's first such union has involved secret
plans for midnight manoeuvres and an intense determination to provide the
backdrop for the historic breakthrough.
Both will register their first
same-sex civil partnerships at exactly the same time -- 8 am on 21 December, the
first day such unions become legal in England
and Wales.
But the seaside resort has edged ahead of its
London rival in its attempts to corner a market in gay
couples tying the knot.
Almost 400 pairs of gay men and
lesbians have applied to Brighton and Hove City
Council to hold their nuptials in the area, and 198 will have their unions
registered before the new year. In contrast, Westminster Council, which
includes the gay mecca of Soho, has only 132
ceremonies planned.
Both have chosen their first
couples carefully. Roger Lockyer, 77, and his 66-year-old partner, Percy
Stevens, who have been together for 40 years, will be the first gay couple to
have their union recognised at Marylebone
Town Hall
in Westminster.
'They are very young at heart, very excited and plan to enjoy it as much as they
can', said a council spokeswoman.
However,
Brighton may prove the more photogenic location. At the same
time as Lockyer and Stevens, the city will simultaneously see the marriage of
three couples, standing side by side, in a ceremony lasting only a few seconds.
Each couple will have a registrar overseeing their union. They include the
Rev Debbie Gaston and Elaine Cook, her partner of 16 years, and Gino Meriano --
who runs Pink Weddings in Weybridge, Surrey -- and his boyfriend, Mike Ullett.
'They'll all have filled in the
forms in advance via the internet so all the three couples will have to do is
sign their names and wait for a button to be pressed. It will only take a
matter of seconds,' said a council spokeswoman. The ceremony will be
relayed on a big screen at Brighton's Hilton
Metropole hotel so that friends and relations can watch proceedings.
Brighton
has marketed itself energetically as the perfect location for gay weddings.
When plans to allow same-sex unions were announced, it sought to steal a march
by holding its first one as the clock struck midnight on 20 December. But
under the Civil Partnerships Bill the registration of such weddings can only
happen during the same hours as heterosexual weddings: 8 am - 6 pm.
The Bill gives gays who have their
civil partnership registered the same property and inheritance rights as married
couples and other advantages in pensions, immigration and tax matters.
Ministers expect 22,000 to have taken place by 2010. The
UK
will become the fifth country to allow gay couple to 'marry' after
Holland, Canada,
Belgium and, since July,
Spain,
Westminster reinforced its newfound
determination to woo and welcome gays last week when it scrapped a long-standing
ban on rainbow flags flying above gay bars, clubs and shops in Soho after
recognising their 'important tradition' in the area.
London's mayor, Ken Livingstone, welcomed the U-turn as proof that 'London
is making great progress as one of the most gay- and lesbian-friendly cities in
the world'.
But neither Brighton nor
Westminster
will gain a place in history as the first place in the
UK to stage a gay wedding. That
distinction will go to Derry, which plans to hold one at 9 am on 19 December,
beating two lesbians marrying in
Belfast
by an hour. Derry is able to do so because civil partnerships can start
being registered in Northern Ireland
two days before those in England
and Wales.
Several same-sex relationships will
also be given legal force 24 hours later in Edinburgh, the first day gays and
lesbians in Scotland can register their unions under the legislation.
In the pink:
the rivals for a place in history
Brighton
Of the 161,000 population, an
estimated 40,000 are gay and the city is famous for its Gay Pride Festival.
The hub of the gay scene is
Kemptown -- nicknamed 'Camptown' -- a thriving area which has many bars, cafes
and nightclubs, especially around
St James's Street
and the Old Steine
Jamie Hakim
of Attitude, the gay lifestyle magazine, says: 'Gay people are now so much
a part of Brighton's identity that schools have pupils with lesbian mothers or
gay dads and nobody's bothered, which doesn't happen in London. So
Brighton is better for gay families.'
Hakim's score
5/5
Westminster
There are an estimated 400,000 gays
in London
and Soho is their mecca.
Old
Compton Street, with its gay bars and rainbow flags,
is Soho's spiritual centre. G-A-Y on
Charing Cross Road is one of
Europe's biggest nightclubs for gays and lesbians. Acts with
many gay admirers, such as Westlife, Will Young and All Saints, have performed
there.
London
has a bigger gay population than in Brighton,
there are more niche bars, clubs and social spaces for gays and lesbians.'
Hakim's score
4/5
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