Monday, December 19, 2005

Here Come the Brides (and Grooms)

Well at 10am this morning at Belfast City Hall, just up Chichester Street from one of my former places of employment, history was made. Shannon Sickles and Grainne Close become the first gay couple to take advantage of the Civil Partnership Act. There were unable to formalise their relationship in Ms Sickles home state of New York where there is not recognition of gay partnerships. Henry Kane and Christopher Flanagan were next in line to keep their appointment with the registrar.

It is good to see Northern Ireland making history for a breakthrough in tolerance and civil liberty for a change.

However, it wasn’t all rosy outside City Hall, some of the Rev. Ian Paisley’s Free Presbyterian Church members were protesting. But then Shatesbury Square wouldn’t be quite the same without some sort of protest.

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