Canberra Celebrates Civil Ceremony

Local News, By Christian Taylor, 3rd June, 2008

On Monday the ACT celebrated the first civil ceremony marking the registration of a same sex relationship. According to ABC Online it was a low key affair between two men who have been together for 25 years, down on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin.

The couple – Kevin Boreham and Edwin Ho – read out vows to each other, exchanged rings and then locked lips. Friends who were present read a passage from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, as well as a poem by Robert Browning.

It’s the first commitment ceremony to take place in the territory since the ACT passed new legislation, recognising same sex relationships. Same-sex couples can now register their relationship and have a ceremony paid for by taxpayers, but the ceremony itself isn’t the legally binding part. We can’t have it looking too much like marriage after all.

Couples in the ACT now have four different options when it comes to registering their partnership, from simply submitting paperwork, right through to a fully fledged commitment ceremony.

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