Like animals trying to get into the ark, a procession of couples are turning up at registry offices in London to challenge Britain's tendentious distinction between marriage (only for straight folk) and civil partnership (reserved for gays). On November 2nd the Rev Sharon Ferguson and Franka Strietzel were turned down when they sought permission in Greenwich to marry. A week later Islington refused to let Tom Freeman and Katherine Doyle, a straight pair, register a civil partnership. Others are set to test the rules, in a campaign run by Peter Tatchell, a gay-rights activist, to highlight what they see as two-way discrimination.
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