Mixed-sex civil unions face new legal threat
A couple who spent five years fighting for the right to have a mixed-sex civil partnership say they are prepared to go back to court after being warned their children could be rendered illegitimate by the process. Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan will enter into a civil union tomorrow, the first opportunity for heterosexual couples to do so after Parliament changed the law. But they have been warned that the 1976 Legitimacy Act may affect the legal rights of their children.
A COUPLE who struggled for five years to be granted a mixed-sex civil partnership may return to court after being warned their children could be rendered illegitimate by the process.
Along with thousands across Britain, Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan will enter into a civil partnership tomorrow, the earliest opportunity for heterosexual couples to do so after Parliament changed the law in October.
Preparations for the ceremony at Chelsea Register Office have been marred, however, after an official told them they must re-register the births of their children.
The couple were warned that, should they fail to do so, any future offspring may enjoy greater legal rights of inheritance. The pair could also be fined £2.
Their experience is shared by others across the country and stems from a clause of the 1976 Legitimacy Act.
Last night Ms Steinfeld and Mr Keidan, who successfully fought the Government through three courts to win access to a civil partnership, described the law as “stigmatising” their children, aged four and two.
“It just seems so archaic and out of touch and offensive that they would be considered to have a different status to any children we would have in the future. We will not be re-registering their births on principle.”
Parents of a newborn child are legally required to register the birth within 42 days in order to obtain a birth certificate and give the baby a legal identity. However, the Legitimacy Act requires parents to re-register the birth if they subsequently get married, even if the father is on the birth certificate.
According to the Equal Civil Partnerships campaign group, town hall clerks appear to be applying this to the thousands of mixed-sex civil partnerships expected over the next year.
Since the earliest date on which these couples could notify of their intention to form a civil partnership, Dec 2, the campaign’s Facebook page has been inundated with messages expressing bewilderment, concern and anger that children could be deemed in any way illegitimate.
The clause also applies to same-sex civil partnerships.
Ms Steinfeld, 38, said: “The difference between marriage and civil partnership is that civil partnership is a modern social institution that is, except for this aspect, free of all of this old-school patriarchal baggage.
“It stigmatises children based on their parents’ relationship status – and that just seems so anachronistic.”
Last night Mr Keidan indicated the couple could be prepared to return to the courts unless the Legitimacy Act was reformed.
Prof Robert Wintemute, a human rights law expert who has advised Equal Civil Partnerships, said the Legitimacy Act may be unlawful.
“The European Convention on Human Rights does not permit discrimination between children born in wedlock and out of wedlock,” he said.