civil partnerships

Same-sex couples in Northern Ireland are still denied the right to marry, a right available to every other couple in the UK.

News that the conversion of civil partnerships to marriage will entail an appointment at a register office and not a marriage ceremony has outraged and disappointed Quaker couples.

Four Christians have gone to the European Court of Human Rights to argue that Christians as a group are being discriminated against in the UK, notes Symon Hill. But it is one thing to argue for free expression, quite another to argue for the right to discriminate against same-sex couples. Meanwhile, other Christians have witnessed to their faith by preparing to go to prison for a protest aganist nuclear weapons - but that case has received far less attention.