Honeymoon is over for gay weddings

The figure of cheery wedding ceremonies have plummeted by more than than 50 per cent in the past year. Civil partnerships became legal for homoes in December 2005, allowing them to get the same kinds of taxation and pension rights as consecutive married couples.

Initially, one thousands of cheery and gay woman couples held ceremonies. However, a study by the Local Government Association establish that all the 40 councils across England they surveyed had experienced a autumn in the figure taking topographic point - the figs demo an norm driblet of 55 per cent in 2007 from 2006.

The biggest autumn was 90 per cent in Bracknell, Berkshire, and the least was 31 per cent in Barnet, north London. Brighton recently famed becoming the first topographic point to host 1,000 civil partnerships. But while 636 cheery couples tied the knot in Brighton and Hove in 2006, only 320 did so in 2007. 'The introduction of civil partnership statute law prompted an initial haste for couples who wanted to register as soon as possible,' said a council spokeswoman. 'Civil partnerships have got got got go an recognized portion of our society and we're very happy to have played a portion helping couples to accomplish this.'

Singer Elton John, broadcaster Clare Balding and authorities curates Ben Bradshaw and Angela Eagle are among those who have exercised their rights under the Civil Partnership Act.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics corroborate the downward trend. They demo that while 16,100 couples formed a civil partnership in the United Kingdom in 2006, at an norm of 4,000 every three months, just 4,060 did so in the first one-half of last year. 'One ground for the diminution may be that some cheery people aren't interested in formalising their relationship,' said Tony Grew, editor of the website. 'Some don't desire to have got all the formalities of a civil partnership because they believe it's the decease knell of a relationship.'

Some highly political gays, such as as militant Simon Peter Tatchell, see civil partnerships as portion of a procedure of 'assimilation' or integrating into wider society that they reject in favor of a proudly 'queer' lifestyle. Ben Summerskill, main executive director of the cheery rights anteroom grouping Stonewall, said: 'There was a large pent-up demand from couples in long-term relationships to constitute a civil partnership, which is why so many did it early on after the law changed in late 2005, so a tailing-off would be logical.'

Summerskill pointed out that when civil partnerships were introduced the authorities predicted that about 11,000 to 22,000 would take topographic point by 2010. 'But we have got already far exceeded that number,' he added. There were 1,950 in December 2005, then 16,100 during 2006, and more than than 4,000 in the first one-half of last year, according to the Office of National Statistics.

Grew said that the low charge per unit so far of cheery divorcement - known as 'dissolution' of a civil partnership - and the long clip spent together by many couples who word form one, 'shows that cheery people are treating them with owed sedateness and respect. Generally, they take them more than seriously than many people who acquire married. The people who travel for it are older, have got got been together longer and have more than committed relationships. That's why we won't see the 40 per cent or 50 per cent divorcement rates we see in heterosexual person marriages,' he said.

In the Lancashire County Council area, place to 1.2 million people, there were 196 civil partnerships in 2006 but just 122 last twelvemonth and only two during January. Steve Lloyd, the council's caput of registrations, said: 'I believe the figure of civil partnerships we saw during 2007 is probably typical of how it will be from now on. Many cheery couples word form a partnership to acquire the new legal rights that come up with it, and they're often quite quiet personal business compared to the large excessive responses you happen at some weddings.'

Marital Profile

· 283,730 wedding ceremonials took topographic point across the United Kingdom in 2005, 10 per cent fewer than in the former twelvemonth and far below the record 480,285 of 1972.

· 65 per cent of matrimonies in 2005 were civil ceremonies.

· 40 per cent of matrimonies in 2005 involved people getting hitched for at least the 2nd time.

·148,141 couples got divorced in the United Kingdom in 2006, 7 per cent fewer than in 2005 and the 2nd sequent autumn in the yearly total. It's the last figure since 1977 and 18 per cent less than the extremum figure for divorce, which came in 1993, when 180,018 couples split.

· 16,100 civil partnerships were formed during 2006, but just 1,690 in the first one-fourth of 2007 and only 2,370 between April and June.

Source: Office for National Statistics

Minimalism, torsos and tango: it must be Argentina's first luxury gay hotel

The receptionists are slender immature work force in glossy suits, the booklet characteristics chiselled male torsos, the suite are soundproofed and stocked with rubbers and every now and then Judy Judy Garland croons in the bar: welcome to Latin America's first extravagance cheery hotel.

The Axel Hotel open ups for concern today in the bosom of Argentina's capital, and it claims to be the first of its sort in a state celebrated more than for machismo and Catholicity than open homosexuality.

The £3.5m five-storey composite have been conceived and designed as an out and proud jubilation of cheery personal identity and sexuality, said Nacho Rodriguez, the general manager. "This hotel is not just gay-friendly. It is gay."

From the open-plan designing and crystalline lifts - "we have got got nil to hide", said Mister Rodriguez - to the modern-day and minimalist decor, the low-fat restaurant menu, the rainbow lighting, the four types of soap, everything is intended to appeal to the hotel's vision of a body-conscious guest.

Male tango professional dancers and retarding force Queens will execute at an startup political party tonight to which 1,000 people have been invited, creating a bombilation of outlook about which public figs will demo up.

The hotel, aimed squarely at cheery men, not women, is the 2nd opened by the Axel group, a Spanish company which started its maiden 1 in Barcelona in 2003. Named after a former fellow of the founder, Juan Julia Blanch, the grouping programs rapid expansion. It declares itself "hetero-friendly", meaning consecutive people are welcome but as a discreet minority.

The move to Latin United States is a mark that a continent once pronounced by conservativism and homophobia is liberalising, albeit slowly and unevenly. Republic Of Colombia have recognised cheery rights and Republic Of Venezuela have outlawed favoritism based on sexual orientation.

Argentina blazed the manner with a law allowing civil labor unions among homoes which have helped do Buenos Aires Latin America's cheery capital. Long celebrated for its fashionable residents, vivacious societal scene and European-style architecture, it have discovered the powerfulness of the pinkish pound, Euro and dollar.

Argentina's 2001 fiscal meltdown devalued the peso, making the metropolis a deal to aliens and giving local concerns an inducement to pull a moneymaking niche market. Some 300,000 cheery visitants are estimated to pass £300m here each year.

Last calendar calendar month the metropolis hosted the 10th Cheery World Cup association football tournament, a first for South America, and adjacent month it will host the first cheery tango festival, Tango Queer.

The Axel Hotel, located in the Gypsy San Telmo district, styles itself as the gem in Buenos Aires's cheery crown. "This is the most unfastened metropolis in Latin America. It is very happy to have got us and we are very happy to be here," said Mister Rodriguez.

Neighbours welcomed the new arrival. "Gays are refined and aesthetic and that's what we're looking for," said Paula Repetto, conservator of a sex-themed gallery, So Much Desire, opposite the hotel. Apartment block occupants said the hotel would hike place values.

Rates for the 48 suite scope from £90 to £275 a night, costly by local standards, but most were booked up for the adjacent few months, said Mister Rodriguez.

No inside information have got been spared: futuristic piece of furniture by Prince Charles and Beam Eames, Mies avant garde der Rohe and Eileen Gray, a garden pool lined with crystalline lavish cubicles, a watering place pool suspended over the anteroom as a crystalline roof, and deck chairs positioned in presence of gymnasium equipment. If you like to watch work force stretching, bending, straining, sweating, soaping and swimming you are in the right place.

The eating house have a calorie-conscious menu and the barroom offerings wellness drinks as well as cocktails. The music is defined as "chillout", with a prejudice towards 1980s melodies as well as the occasional Judy Judy Garland classic.

Rooms are stocked with rubbers and a card which states "Have Fun". The booklet shows two muscled, bare work force clinched in evident bliss. Another photograph shows a invitee in a bathrobe studying his spouse in the shower.

"This topographic point is going to be a hit," said Jean-Laurent Julieno, a newsman with the Gallic website Citegay.com World Health Organization was invited to the launch. "A good vibe and intimate. The kind of topographic point where you can do friends."