[pendy]

Under the new legislation that comes into force later this year, people who enter into gay partnership agreements will have virtually the same rights as married couples, so far as Inheritance Tax, pension provision, etc.

This is more than heterosexual couples living in "common-law marriages" have. In fact, in law, there is no such thing as a common law marriage despite what is generally thought.

This does give gays more rights than the "normal" heterosexual population, who have to get married to get the same rights.

This brings us back to the question of choice. It has always been the case that if you make some life choices, others are barred to you. If you become a nun, you can't get married and have a family. It is your choice. However, the situation now is that people want to make a lifestyle choice which excludes other options, but they want those options as well - homosexual couples want children and equal rights with married couples. The baseline seems to be that they want homosexuality accepted as normality. It isn't. It should be seen as equal but different, and the difference is that there are some things you can't have - like marriage and all its advantages. There is nothing wrong with equal but different, so long as everyone accepts that.