h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I wasn't aware of the Law Commission's investigation, but regardless of the outcome it will propbably re-inforce the notion that heterosexual relationships have a higher status than homosexual ones.

If a contry like Spain is able to allow full marriage to LGB people, I fail to understand why Her Majesty's Government is unable to commit to the same thing here.

We should have an H2G2 M2M2 meet and form a campaigns group lol!!

Babs x x

Oh and Honestlago, HM Government puts the CP uptake as being dominated by LGB people (95%), with 5% being heterosexual, yes. A not insignificant figure though I think.

Just because something is targeted at a group of people it doesn't mean it's any good for them. Some things are just patronising.

>>As you rightly say, CP are nothing more than a legal document in the same way as a will, a mortgage, a tenancy agreement, Sky digital or any other thing which involves signing a contract is<<

Bear with me here, I am a Scouser after all, but I seriously don't see how a marriage, especially one conducted in a registry office isn't just another contract from a strictly legal perspective either. I just don't see it. There are minor differences, like the registrars book needing to be signed by both parties with witnesses present for heterosexuals, whereas for CPs the license (or whatever its technical name is) can be signed seperately with just the registrar present. This works to the advantage of some gay people.

>>I would imagine that a high percentage of CPs will be used for the reason you give<<

Seriously Rilington, why would you imagine this? Are you sure it isn't because of your distaste for heterosexuals? I cannot believe that they'd be abused like this in any serious way, at least not more than marriage.

>>join in Holy Matrimony<<

Boswellow to Holy Matrimony! That's only relevant if you believe in organised religions and if you do and are gay, you have bigger issues, like the incompatibility of religious faith and homosexuality.

Ahem - Boswellox even.

The fact that 5% of Cps are heterosexual totally backs up and undelriens your point that CP is nothing more than a legal document.

>>HM Government puts the CP uptake as being dominated by LGB people (95%), with 5% being heterosexual, yes. A not insignificant figure though I think<<

Do similar figures exist for heterosexual marriage? Because I'd be inclined to believe the figures for people getting married for reasons other than the ones intended by religions/governments would be higher than 5%

There was talk of a h2g2 m2m2 meet a while ago, but it never happened. I still think it's a good idea though, I think it'd be a good laugh so I'm up for anything that got arranged.

Hello,

I haven't posted on M2M2 before, but I'd like to contribute where I can. It seems to me that a civil partnership is a halfway house, a botched one maybe, but a step in the right direction. You can rant about it not being enough if you like, but as the great man said, 'these things take time...'

Jack

Yes that is true about a registrary office marriage but a marriage is seena s what it is - a public and socially accepted joining together of a man and a woman. The legal aspect of it whilst being there is basically invisible.

CP, on the other hand, has no social status and has been written as nothing other than a legal document and, as you say, is entered into by just a series of signatures in the same way as any other legal document is. This is why tyou will get lots of heterosexuals entering into CPs for business and tax-saving reasons.

Yes I agree about your point about Holy Matrimony but the afct that we are denied this as well underlines my point that we are seen as nobodies and treated as such and CP is a perfect example of this.

Welcome Jack.

Let us not go in to the argument of homosexuality versus religion. I think that they can certainly be compatible, I went out with a Christian boyfriend, who attended church each week, and one of my Committee officers is a Catholic christian. It is interpretation of texts that causes the problems, and having people in charge who misuse their powers to influence vulnerable people. On the whole, people tend not to believe every single thing that the people at the top of thei religious organisations say. They usually have their own sense of morality.

Faith is wholly different, as it does not infer that person is bound to any religion. A person might detest religion but still have a strong faith.

>>CP, on the other hand, has no social status and has been written as nothing other than a legal document and, as you say, is entered into by just a series of signatures in the same way as any other legal document is<<

I disagree very strongly on this point. I'd say that if you want proof that CPs are seen as socially equivalent to heterosexual marriages, you only have to look at the news coverage from the first few weeks of December last year. Almost every thing written about CPs had the phrase gay "'marriage'" with the apostrophes being used because people viewed them to be the same as marriage, but techinically, legally, they weren't and as I've said, I've believe the legal differences to be pretty insignificant.

There's also the fact that we, as a society, decide what is socially acceptable. If LGBT treat CPs the same as marriage, others will follow suit. The GT may have been wringing itself in knots since December over this, but sometimes it'd be nice if the GT admired the world outside of its own backside

Oh bless you Jack, Hastings! Why were you subjected to that place??

Babs x

I agree. was just making the point that Holy Matrimony is another thing denied to us.

I'd quite happy to stay away from the issue of religion vs homosexuality, I come across as a lot less liberal than I usually am. However

>>It is interpretation of texts that causes the problems, and having people in charge who misuse their powers to influence vulnerable people<<

This is the problem with religion full stop. This is why religions are incoherent and self-contradictory. One might derive other things from this, but this isn't the palce for that rant.

Faith is entirely different from religion, and I made a point of making that distinction in my post. However, the point of Holy Matrimony doesn't apply to faith, if you have faith that doesn't rely on a religion, you don't have the problem of contradiction

Hastings, poor mutant psychotic cousin to Brighton, is where I lived from about 12 to 26. I'm still trying to make adjustments to fit in to the normal world, where you might not get evils for looking slightly different from eveyone else. And my family still insist on living there, so I have to go back sometimes

but the point is is that Cps are nothing more than a legal document and should be seen as that and treated as such accordingly.

From memory, almost all of the news coverage was about the celebrities who went to the party Elton John and David Furnish gave.

I think your last paragraph underlines my entire point. Society (ie heterosexuals) has made it clear that we cannot get married and that CP has been introduced in such a way to make clear that CP is NOT marriage and holds none of the social acceptance that marriage has.

As said before I don't want a debate over religion and LGBT relationships.

Personally I don't see the necessity of organised religions, I find that they detract one from a true faith in God, if one chooses to believe in that. All I am saying is that a lot of people do seem to take some comfort in organised religion, however, and many of those people are LGBT. The fact that there are religious LGBT people proves that to them, at least, the two are not imcompatible, and so the two cannot be said to be intrinsically incompatible.

Anyway, I must be off now, I'm tired and need dinner!

Babs x x

I do, however, agree with your points about religion in post 34.

...and yes lets keep religion away from this discussion.

I could give you half a dozen links right now that didn't focus on Elton John and David Furnish. Very few of the 'serious' media outlets gave that particular happy couple a second mention.

I'm gonna have to go and check what my last paragraph was, the speed of this thread is starting to confuse me. Good fun though