Heterosexual couple lose battle for civil partnership
By CHIEF REPORTER A HETEROSEXUAL couple who want the right to enter into a civil partnership said they will take their fight to the Supreme Court after losing the latest round of their legal fight against the Government.
Rebecca Steinfeld, 35, and Charles Keidan, 40, won the sympathy of three Court of Appeal judges who said they might be victims of discrimination, as the Civil Partnership Act 2004 only al- lows same-sex couples to use the alternative to marriage.
But the judges said it was not up to the courts to “micro-manage” Government policy on the matter, which is likely to change once ministers have had time to assess the impact of samesex marriages, which were legalised in 2014.
Mr Keidan and Miss Steinfeld, who have a 20-month-old daughter and live in Hammersmith, west London, are ideologically opposed to marriage be- cause of the “patriarchal baggage” they say it carries.
Mr Keidan and Miss Steinfeld, who are both academics, said the current state of affairs was “incompatible with equality law”. The Court of Appeal agreed they had established a potential violation of Article 14 of the European Convention, which relates to discrimination, taken with Article 8, which refers to respect for private and family life.
But, by a majority, the judges said it was at present justified by the Government’s policy of “wait and evaluate”.
Justine Greening, the Education Secretary, who has responsibility for equalities, said it was decided, after public consultations and debate in Parliament, not, at this stage, to extend civil partnerships to opposite-sex couples, abolish them or phase them out.
The aim was to see how extending marriage to same-sex couples impacted on civil partnerships before making a final decision which, if reversed in a few years’ time, would be disruptive, unnecessary and extremely expensive.
Miss technicality, that the Government should be allowed a little more time to make a decision. So there’s everything to fight for, and much in the ruling that gives us reason to keep going.”
Among the couple’s supporters was Fiona Millar, the long-term partner of Tony Blair’s former communications director Alastair Campbell, who urged the Government to make civil partnerships available to everyone.
Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan have been a couple for six years, and have a child together. Understandably, they want to recognise and celebrate their relationship in law. But their decision to do so by seeking, through the courts, the right to enter into a civil partnership has had limited success. The Court of Appeal became the latest body to dismiss their attempt yesterday, although the pair have vowed to take their case to the Supreme Court.
Luckily, a solution is at hand that would allow them to live happily together with their relationship given the legal and social recognition that it merits. It would save them further anguish, as well as thousands of pounds in legal fees. It might even make them happy, as it has countless others. It is called marriage. They should try it.