Ties That Bind

Abstract

There has been increasing recognition of same-sex relationships across Western Europe.¹ with the introduction of the Civil Partnership Act in the United Kingdom (December 2005) effectively mainstreaming same-sex rights, some would say, to marry in all but name. With this Act has come the proliferation of new sexual stories, taking up much coverage in the lesbian and gay press and in the international media. Commentaries and controversies then run from the celebration of (monogamous) coupledom which has been extended to same-sex partners, in a thoroughly ‘tolerable’ way, to partial mockery and ironic humour, to outright condemnation, where the featuring of ‘homosexuality’ as a ‘sin’ is endlessly repeated. While some evangelical Christian groups have disapproved of civil partnerships, given that they supposedly parody and make a mockery of traditional heterosexual marriage, others question why lesbians and gays would want to adopt the conservative values of marriage in the first place, given that it places sexuality in its ‘proper’ place: within the private, monogamous, (tax-paying, dual-income) household (Richardson, 2004). For many working-class lesbians and gays, civil partnerships may mean little at best, given that extension of pension rights are less likely to apply, but the implications and consequences of civil partnerships may actually be restrictive and penalising.