“Civil partnership” may sound more bureaucratically clinical than “marriage,” but for homosexual couples in Britain this month, it will amount to almost the same thing, complete with divorces as well as unions.

Although Britain lags behind Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, and Canada in actually permitting gay marriages, the Civil Partnerships Act (which will come into effect in Northern Ireland on December 19th, in Scotland on the 20th,  and England and Wales on the 21th) will confer essentially the same legal rights as marriage. Under the act, gay partners will be each other’s financial beneficiaries without a will and will be permitted to inherit, be exempt from inheritance tax, benefit from their partner’s national insurance payments, enjoy the same pension privileges as their married counterparts, be considered married in terms of immigration, and be obligated to financially support each other.  The British government expects up to 22,000 such unions by 2010.

Like married couples, gay couples will now have the legal privilege of the agony of divorce, complete with the same financial wrangling.  Like married couples, those in civil partnerships will have to wait one year before filing for the dissolution of their partnerships.  

Mimi Hanaoka