U.K. Parliament to Host Its First Ever Civil Partnership Ceremony

The U.K. Parliament is due to witness its first civil partnership ceremony in the near future after Europe Minister Chris Bryant confirmed that he and his partner Jared Cranney are hoping to get "married" within its historic walls next year.

Mr Bryant, a former Church of England chaplain, and Mr Cranney, a company secretary, first met in April 2008 when Mr Bryant was out campaigning with former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone. And now, just a month after U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown suggested that civil partnership ceremonies, like heterosexual weddings, should be held at Westminster, Downing Street apparently said that holding the ceremonies would deliver a "powerful message that the mother of Parliaments is truly representative", Mr Bryant has announced that he and Mr Cranney are working with House of Commons Speaker John Bercow to try and make a March "wedding" possible. As the Independent reports MPs, peers, and their families have for a long time now been able to marry in the 14th century Chapel of St Mary, which sits within the grounds of Parliament. However, as the Church of England does not permit civil partnership ceremonies in its places of worship, it does not consider them to be equal to a heterosexual marriage, an alternative venue for Mr Bryant and Mr Cranney had to be found. If everything goes to plan the alternative venue will be the Speaker's House, the official riverside residence in the Palace of Westminster that accompanies the position currently held by Mr Bercow, who is now attempting to obtain a license to enable his residence to be used for civil partnership ceremonies. Mr Bryant, a leading campaigner for equal rights, has, says the Independent, pressed the Church of England to treat a civil partnership as it does a heterosexual marriage. He once noted:

All my friends who have entered into a civil partnership refer to it as their 'marriage' or their 'wedding' so the most important issue is that nobody should be discriminated against because of their sexuality

The Daily Telegraph makes reference to a slight controversy involving Mr Bryant, the Member of Parliament for Rhondda in South Wales, which occurred in 2003. A picture of Mr Bryant, posing in only his underpants on a gay dating website, found its way in to the press. British politicians already in civil partnerships include Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw and Alan Duncan, Shadow Minister for Prisons.