Three gay 'weddings' a day in Scotland

Scotland on Sunday has a comprehensive report on the levels of civil partnerships being registered in Scotland since it became law just before last Christmas, and it appears that about three have been conducted every day (173 over the past 53 days), with ceremonies booked and due to take place over the next three months standing at 385. As one would expect, Edinburgh (67 civil partnerships registered and another 178 booked) and Glagow (44 civil partnerships registered and another 81 booked) lead the pack. Traditional marriages (i.e. male/female) in each city still dwarf these figures, with over 300 being carried out a month in each city.

There are a number of other important and interesting factors which have been identified in the Scotland on Sunday article. The ratio of male/male and female/female civil partnerships has so far been 2:1. Several very discreet ceremonies have taken place in the tradtional place for 'runaway' marriages - Gretna! The discretion is nothing unusual though, because the bulk of the ceremonies throughout Scotland have been entirely normal and 'traditional', with family and friends being present. There has been an east/west split, with more taking place in east coast councils than those in the west. Two areas have had 'no demand' for civil partnership ceremonies - Midlothian and Western Isles - although as I have already written, the council in the latter has attempted to ban, or make extremely difficult the carrying out of such ceremonies so the 'no demand' finding there must be open to question. Four councils (Stirling, Moray, Highlands, Scottish Borders and Argyll and Bute) declined to respond to the Scotland on Sunday inquiries - that, by the way, seems to be five (not four) councils.

The figures for the levels of traditional marriages which continue to take place are the best possible rebuttal for the mindlessly homophobic comments of the Catholic Archbishop of Glasgow, Mario Conti:

"This new law has created a fiction of marriage by implicitly basing such publicly recognised partnerships on a sexual engagement. This can only diminish the special status of marriage."

Conclusion - the world continues to turn on its axis quite merrily. As with the abolition of the ban on gays serving in the military the negative fallout from this change has been negligible or non-existent.