Do we need civil partnerships for mixed-sex couples?

I WELCOME Theresa May’s decision to extend civil partnerships to heterosexual couples. Civil partnership was designed to give legal recognition to a close relationship without conferring the gravitas of traditional marriage. Gay couples understandably resented being offered only this option, while some heterosexual couples would have preferred it. With civil partnership open to all, it could again serve its unspoken purpose of maintaining the dignity of marriage. This was previously seen as being threatened by same-sex marriage, when the real affront to it comes from serial marriage and divorce. JOHN RISELEY, Harrogate, N. Yorks. HOW sad that a man and a woman living as a couple don’t love each other enough to want to marry and commit to each other for life. VAL BEST, Colchester, Essex. EXTENDING civil partnerships to heterosexual couples and plans to allow no-fault divorces will damage marriage irreparably. Civil partnerships remove the uniqueness that marriage had as the one state-backed way of gaining legal protections inside a relationship. Marriage is the gold standard. Despite all the problems associated with it over the years, it has had the greatest social benefit. ADEYEMI BANJO, London SE15. I FELL foul of the outdated intestacy rules, which fail to prioritise a cohabitee over other family members, when my partner died suddenly at the age of 57. The announcement on mixed-sex civil partnerships goes some way to addressing this injustice and the great suffering it can cause. Ms J. PALMER, Reading, Berks.