Britain Awash in "Gay Weddings", Blair Labels Step Progressive

As Christmas approaches many Gay couples in the U. K. took advantage of the new civil partnership law, to "tie the knot" prior to year's end.

The United Kingdom's biggest social reform for 40 years came to fruition yesterday when nearly 700 couples, including Sir Elton John and David Furnish,(pictured above left) celebrated England's first gay "weddings".

Prime Minister, Tony Blair, welcomed the new civil partnerships as "a modern, progressive step" of which he was proud.

The reform is widely seen as the most significant advance for homosexual rights since 1967, when the Sexual Offences Act, which partially decriminalised sex between men over 21, received royal assent.

Ceremonies ranging from the flamboyant to the discreet took place at register offices across the country as an estimated 687 couples took advantage of the new legislation. The Government expects 4,500 couples to become "partnered" in the first year.

Meg Munn, the deputy equality minister, who was in Brighton to witness some of the first, said the occasion marked "another step along the road of equality".