Couple to fight on in civil partnership hope

A HETEROSEXUAL couple who have lost their latest battle for the right to enter into a civil partnership say there is “everything to fight for”.

Rebecca Steinfeld, 35, and Charles Keidan, 40, want to secure legal recognition of their seven-year relationship through that route, but are prevented because the Civil Partnership Act 2004 says only same-sex couples are eligible.

The academics, who live in Hammersmith, west London, and have a 20-month-old daughter, claim the government’s position is “incompatible with equality law” .

Yesterday 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”.

They heard the couple have deeprooted and genuine ideological objections to marriage and wish to enter into a legally regulated relationship which does not carry “patriarchal baggage”.

The Secretary of State for Education, who has responsibility for equalities within government, 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.