The couple whose legal battle paved the way for a change in the law has walked out of a register office as one of the first heterosexual couples in England and Wales to enter into a civil partnership.
Civil partnerships – which the government expects to be embraced by around 84,000 mixed-sex couples in 2020 – offer almost identical rights as marriage, including property, inheritance and tax entitlements.
Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan, who won their legal battle at the supreme court in 2018 for the right to have a civil partnership instead of a marriage, said their wish was “rooted in our desire to formalise our relationship in a more modern way, focused on equality and mutual respect.”
Steinfeld, an academic, said on the steps of Kensington and Chelsea register office: “There is now a space for new, more modern possibilities for people to express their love and commitment to one another.
“The urgent need to reform cohabitation law so that social policy keeps up with the reality of family life in modern Britain has been brought into greater focus. And by ending the unrivalled position of marriage we have helped to create the space for deeper discussions about giving legal recognition to other types of personal and caring relationships, such as those between friends, siblings and co-parents.”
Civil partnerships were created in 2004 as a means of allowing same-sex couples to enter into a union that guarantees them similar legal rights to those who are married.
They are limited to same-sex couples but in October 2018, following a supreme court ruling declaring the existing position discriminatory, the government announced that heterosexual couples would also be entitled to enter the arrangement.
There are differences between the two forms of union, partially symbolic and partially matters of substance. For a marriage, the ceremony is solemnised by the couple saying a prescribed form of words; in a civil partnership, the couple can simply sign a document.
Marriages can be conducted through either a civil or religious ceremony, at a registry office, church or wherever a venue is licensed. Civil partnerships are secular events, although partners can choose to hold a religious ceremony on the day.
Civil partners cannot declare, for legal purposes, that they are married. Civil partnership certificates include the names of both parents of the parties whereas marriage certificates in England and Wales include only the names of a couple’s fathers – for the time being.
In terms of annulment the rules are virtually identical, although the clause that permits a marriage to be dissolved if one partner is ‘suffering from a venereal disease in a communicable form’ does not apply to civil partnerships.
Likewise, adultery can be grounds for a married couple to divorce though it cannot be relied upon to end a civil partnership.
Those in civil partnerships and those who are married enjoy the same tax breaks and benefits – such as the marriage allowance and bereavement payments. Surviving civil partners are treated the same as widows or widowers in terms of rights to state pension.
While those who are married and in civil partnerships enjoy extensive legal rights, those who are merely cohabiting – 3.3 million couples at the last estimate – have no legal protections or property rights if one of them dies.
The couple were joined for the registration by their two children, Eden, four, and Ariel, two, and their parents and friends who acted as witnesses.
Keidan said: “Through this long journey and hard-fought battle, our mental health has suffered, our ability to be civil to each other has been tested, and, crucially, we missed out on that important moment to state clearly what we mean to each other – not just what we’ve become in the eyes of others.
“So we’re grateful to, and wish to thank, everyone who has supported us on this journey so that we could finally do that in private a few moments ago.”
Those involved in the couple’s campaign said that they were aware of as many as 80 other civil partnerships taking place today around the country. The first took place in Carmarthenshire, where a register office opened at 00:02am on New Year’s Eve for Jake Rayson and Emma Wilson.
