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A charity leader has spoken out in defence of his organisation's acceptance of civil partnerships as opposed to marriage.

In an interview with PinkNews.co.uk, Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill said that, while there are a lot of supporters of marriage in the gay community, not everyone prefers the idea to civil partnerships.

Civil partnerships enable same-sex couples to obtain legal recognition of their relationship.

Once people have entered into such arrangements, they have equal treatment to married couples in a range of areas, including tax, employment and income-related benefits, inheritance of a tenancy agreement and access to fatal accidents compensation.

Mr Summerskill stated: "In terms of our priorities, what we've always focused on is absolutely practical hard outcomes which make a real difference to people's lives ... The reality is half the population already call civil partnerships marriage anyway."

In order to form a civil partnership, people must first give notice, which involves stating an intention to register such a partnership with the registration authority.

09/07/2009 14:53