A homosexual couple has made history by becoming the first in England and Wales to take part in a legal ceremony to form a civil partnership in Leeds at 7.45am Wednesday Dec. 21st.

Also highly publicised this week, have been the plans for celebrity Elton John to take part in a civil partnership ceremony in Windsor Guildhall, which played host to the wedding of the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall in April this year.

The new civil partnership law will give gay couples the same property and inheritance rights as married heterosexuals and entitles them to the same pension, immigration and tax benefits. However, unlike in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Canada it is not a marriage.

A statement released by the Evangelical Alliance in early December stated: “The Alliance believes there can never be moral equivalence between marriage and same-sex partnerships, even if legal equivalence is established.”