Honeymoon over for gay marriages as number of civil partnerships plummets by 50 per cent

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The honeymoon appears to be over for gay weddings after the number of homosexual couples getting "married" plummeted by more than half last year.

Figures from the Local Government Association show the number of single-sex civil partnership ceremonies fell by around 55 per cent during 2007, the second full year such unions were permitted.

Gay community leaders, however, dismissed the dramatic fall as a "normalising process".

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They said the introduction of civil partnerships in late 2005 prompted a flurry of marriages involving longstanding homosexual couples keen to make their relationships official.

Ben Summerskill, chief executive of the gay rights group Stonewall said: "There was a big pent up demand from couples in long-term relationships to form civil partnerships, which is why so many did it early on after the law changed. A tailing-off would be logical."

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove council, which has hosted the most gay weddings in the country, said: "The introduction of civil partnership legislation prompted an initial rush for couples who wanted to register as soon as possible."

Civil partnerships were introduced into law in December 2005, allowing gay couples to acquire the same sorts of tax and pension rights as straight couples.

Critics claimed that the controversial legislation served to undermine the sanctity of marriage.

However, initially at least, the ceremonies were wildly popular with homosexuals.

Singer Sir Elton John became one of 700 gay couples to "marry" on December 21st, 2005 the first day that the ceremonies became legal in England.

Other high-profile gays to have gone through with the ceremonies are broadcaster Clare Balding and government minister Ben Bradshaw.

Yesterday the Local Government Association revealed its survey of 40 local councils which showed that during 2007 all but one experienced a drop in the number of civil ceremonies taking place compared to 2006.

The largest fall was 90 per cent in Bracknell, Berkshire while the smallest was 31 per cent in Barnet, north London. Only Barnsley in South Yorkshire showed an increase - of 14 per cent.

The Office for National Statistics has reported that between the beginning of December 2005 and the end of December 2006 a total of 18,059 civil partnership ceremonies took place in the UK.

According to the ONS, in the first six months of 2007 there were 4,060. This figure, extrapolated out for the whole of 2007, means that 8,120 gay ceremonies took place last year - a fall of 45 per cent compared with the previous year.

However, the LGA's survey shows that fall in the number of gay people getting married is even greater. They claim there has been an average drop of 55 per cent across the country.

They claim that Wandsworth in south London, was typical in that 231 same sex couples married until the end of 2006 whereas 100 gay people married during 2007.

The LGA also reported that many gay couples appear to back out of marrying at the last minute.

Wigan and Leigh council in Lancashire said that of the 94 notices of gay marriage they received in 2006, they only conducted 31. And of the 55 notices they received in 2007, only 17 went ahead.

No statistics have yet been collected on the number of gay weddings to have ended in divorce, as couples must have been together for more than a year before their union can officially be dissolved. "Gay divorce" has therefore only been possible since December 2006.

 

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