Down the aisle into history. . . here come the brides

Cheers and jeers for gay couple who beat Elton to the register office

THERE were two brides and no groom at an historic wedding ceremony yesterday. Grainne Close, 32, and Shannon Sickels, 27, were the first couple to ‘ marry’ under Britain’s civil partnership laws.

The ceremony took place at City Hall, Belfast, where the legislation allowing two men or two women to commit themselves for life has come into force two days earlier than the rest of Britain.

Tomorrow, Elton John will marry his long- time boyfriend David Furnish in one of 700 ceremonies due to be held across England and Wales.

Yesterday’s brides, who met in New Yo r k f o u r y e a r s a g o , exchanged vows and platinum rings in a 30- minute ceremony attended by 70 relatives and friends.

Miss Sickels, an American playwright, wore a white trouser suit.

Her new wife, from Northern Ireland, wore black trousers and a frock coat.

Afterwards, Miss Sickels said: ‘We are delighted. Here’s to many more.’

Earlier, she told how the marriage had made it possible to extend her stay in Britain.

‘ It’s amazing that we’re being recognised in Belfast before New York,’ she said.

‘ I will have immigration status, yet in New York City, where there is a much more open attitude towards gay people, Grainne couldn’t get that. It’s bizarre.’

Miss Sickels, in Britain on a student visa, now has the right to stay another two years.

After that she can apply to stay permanently.

Miss Close, a community worker, said the ceremony did not mean homosexuals were more welcome in Britain.

‘We’re more afraid to hold hands here than we are in New York,’ she said.

She was born to Roman Catholic parents and brought up with two sisters and three brothers in the largely Protestant village of Ahoghill in County Antrim.

She told how she had grown up hating homosexuality before realising she was a lesbian.

‘I absolutely hated lesbians and myself and another woman were always the most anti, who spoke with the most hatred voices,’ she said.

‘ When the first lesbian kiss happened on Brookside I was so disgusted I went on and on about it.’

But Miss Close then started an affair with the woman.

This continued even when she moved in with a boyfriend she stayed with for two and a half years.

Under the new civil partnerships, homosexual couples will enjoy the same tax breaks as married heterosexuals.

If one partner dies, the other will not have to pay inheritance tax on estate left in the will.

Gay partners should be able to claim a spouse’s pension rights, and hospitals will regard them as a patient’s wife or husband.

The downside is that if they part, gay couples will have to go through a divorce process. Homosexual activists at yesterday’s in our ceremony said the marriage marked an important step in the fight for equal rights. But their cheers were largely drowned out by the shouts of Christian protesters.

The fathers of both brides, who only found out about the ceremony yesterday, were aghast at their decision to marry. Robert Close, a retired baker in his 70s, said: ‘News of my own daughter’s wedding being the first gay wedding in the UK has come as a complete and utter shock. I condemn it.’

Stephen Sickels, 56, a retired airforce teacher who is estranged from Miss Sickels, said: ‘ It’s an absolute sin. This will take my daughter straight to hell.

‘It’s terrible news and will cause me to pray for her more.’

Comment – Page 12

A very modern wedding

– Pages 26-27