Parents such as myself, of children who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) want their children to be happy, but they also expect them to be accepted in society as equal citizens with everyone else and to be safe from homophobic abuse.
Most parents in our parents support group feel happier if their adult children are in a settled relationship, or at least a settled family of choice, rather than being on their own and emotionally unsupported, or engaged in 'cruising' which may be dangerous.
Earlier prejudice and school bullying may have prevented them being able to explore relationships safely as teenagers. Adolescence may take place at a later stage of their lives when they come out to themselves and to others and therefore gay people can be
labelled as promiscuous, but they are no more so than their heterosexual peers. The civil partnership option for same-sex couples gives LGB people an alternative choice of life style. We welcome the legislation for gay partnerships as it affirms gay loving relationships, giving them respect. Many of us know gay couples who have lived together for longer than most marriages. Those of us who are Christians remember that God IS love and therefore wherever love is present, there also is God.
Civil partnerships for same-sex couples give gay people a recognisable, committed, legal status. This can only increase happiness and dignity for same sex-couples, reduce promiscuity and thus contribute to the stability of society.
Such partnerships are not a threat to marriage as some people rather obscurely fear they are - it is married people who threaten their own relationships with their own behaviour. Some LGB people do not want to be married, having seen the mess into which many marriages get and how oppressive they can be.
However civil partnerships are not seen as equal to marriage symbolically nor practically, as they are not recognised everywhere outside the UK, nor indeed are same-sex marriages abroad recognised as such in the UK.
Civil marriage for same-sex unions has been supported by the American Psychiatric Association since May 2005 'in the interest of maintaining and promoting mental health'.
They approved a statement as long ago as 2000 supporting the legal recognition of same-sex unions.
Same-sex couples may feel insulted by being offered a second best option to marriage, but they nevertheless accept that same-sex unions are an important step forward in legal recognition, with greater respect for lesbian and gay people.
