Two men have exchanged vows in a civil ceremony on Tuesday, becoming the first pair in Scotland to tie the knot under new laws establishing formal legal partnerships for same-sex couples.

|TOP|The couple, who live in Washington DC, and work for a technology firm, returned home for Tuesday's ceremony. The civil partnership will give them new rights in the United Kingdom, but will not be recognised in the United States.

The ceremony comes just one day after the law took effect in Northern Ireland. Belfast was the scene for Britain’s first “gay marriage” yesterday, which went ahead despite large protests and objections taking place from Catholic and Evangelical Christians. Protestors have given the stark warning that such civil partnerships would lead to an eventual break-down in families and society.

In England and Scotland the Civil Partnership Acts will not allow gay couples to join until Wednesday.

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.

|AD|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.”

Don Horrocks, head of public affairs for the EAUK, said such a push for gay rights eventually takes away from the rights of those who may have a Christian perspective on marriage. He said, “It needs to be remembered that one group’s rights often involves another’s inequality.”

Another senior British clergyman has spoken out against the Civil Partnerships Act. Rev Peter Smith, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cardiff said, “What the Government should do in terms of public policy is support marriage rather than undermine it. To put beside marriage an alternative or what appears to be a perfectly approved legal alternative lifestyle I think does not help the institution of marriage at all.”

However, it appears as if the hype and build-up to the introduction of the Civil Partnership Act, in which it was rumoured that huge numbers would be registering immediately for Civil Partnership, has been overstated.

Many reports had suggested that “More than 500 Civil Partnerships to take place in Brighton alone”. However, in most other cities across the UK, including Manchester, Newcastle, Birmingham, Leeds and Edinburgh, fewer than 100 ceremonies have as of yet been planned.

The Civil Partnership Act will enable homosexuals in England and Wales to take part in legal ceremonies from Wednesday Dec. 21st, 2005.