AS THE LORDS PREPARES TO DEBATE A PRIVATE MEMBERS BILL ON 'CIVIL PARTNERSHIPS':
Peers must reject 'Counterfeit Marriage'

As the House of Lords prepares to debate Lord Lester's Civil Partnerships Bill on Friday 25th January, The Christian Institute publishes a new report, Counterfeit Marriage, which argues against the Bill because:

• It equates gay liaisons and temporary relationships with marriage
• It gives privileges to the 50,000 gay households but withholds them from the 3.4 million people who share a home (for example, two sisters, a daughter and her mother, two friends, a grandson and a grandfather.) Two spinsters who live together for 40 years gain nothing from the Bill unless they pretend to be in a lesbian partnership.
• It gives to gay couples many rights denied to ordinary families. A daughter who nurses her elderly and infirm mother for ten years has to pay inheritance tax when her mother dies, but a homosexual man does not when his registered partner of six months dies.
• There is massive scope for tax evasion and fraud.
• It gives Henry VIII powers to Ministers which could bring in homosexual adoption or change marriage law to force Anglican clergy to 'marry' homosexuals.

Colin Hart, Director of The Christian Institute, said today:

"Marriage is unique. Couples who marry are prepared to make an exclusive commitment for life. The Government acknowledges it is the best place for raising children. Its legal and financial privileges are very necessary for those who make the commitment of marriage. Yet through this Bill, Lord Lester and Stonewall want to take those privileges and hand them out to people who have lived together for six months.

By definition homosexual couples cannot conceive children. The fact is, most homosexual people don't seem to want gay marriage in any case. In London, Ken Livingstone's much-trumpeted civil partnerships register has only been signed by 100 couples in four months. In Denmark, which has had a civil partnerships register since 1989, only 1.7% of homosexual people have signed up to a partnership.

Heterosexual couples already have a way of obtaining the benefits of marriage - by getting married. The law should not promote temporary relationships.

I hope Peers will see this Bill for what it is - a form of counterfeit marriage which devalues the currency of marriage - and reject it."

An online version of Counterfeit marriage is available from www.christian.org.uk/home.htm

For further information contact:

Colin Hart on 0191 281 5664

Note for Editors:
The Christian Institute is a charity which seeks to promote the Christian faith in the UK, giving a Christian perspective on moral and ethical issues.

The Christian Institute, 26 Jesmond Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4PQ. Charity No. 100 4774