Minutes: April 2004

Commitment Ceremonies - Karen Knapton

Helen introduced and welcomed Karen to the meeting.

Karen described that the Commitment Ceremony is for adult couples, either same sex or heterosexual. The purpose is to make a public declaration of life-long commitment, love and celebration between two people. It has no legal status. Partners are given a certificate and number. Karen distributed leaflets on the Ceremony, Venues for civil ceremonies and the Fees.

Karen informed the group that no one, as yet, had signed up for the ceremony. This led to a debate that there ought to be more publicity. Barry noted that people had expressed confusion between ceremonies and partnership. Matthew felt that the Council should publish it's own press release. Helen suggested we should formally request the council to publish a press release. Jane volunteered to distribute the leaflets to the pubs.

The Civil Partnership Bill is a step closer to becoming available by 2005. Same sex partnership's will have equal status to heterosexual marriage except they cannot take place in religious premises. The partnership will be displayed in public for 15 days but addresses and occupation will be excluded for security reasons. The cost of partnership will be set by Local Authorities. (Members noted that we must monitor to ensure the fee will be the same as Registrar Marriages.)

Jane was concerned a change of government may throw out the legislation. Karen felt that would not happen as the scheme has cross party recognition and support.

Christine asked if Transsexuals could register their partnership. They can but it must be in their required gender. Eg if two males register and one of them later has gender reassignment, the registration becomes void.

As with divorce, a civil partnership can only be dissolved by a court of law. There are exclusions from the partnership, ie two siblings living together cannot register to protect their estate from Inheritance Tax. Heterosexual couples cannot register as they have the option of marriage.

Matthew will relay all the new information onto our website.

Helen on behalf of the group thanked Karen for attending our meeting.

Minutes of the Last Meeting- agreed

Matters Arising

A Task group set up to study Educations Equality Document and attended by Jase, Matthew, Jane, Helen and Sue. Amendments were suggested and sent to Education.

Matthew announced to the group that the document we were given was in fact old and had already been ratified by the Education Board and therefore our work was null and void! Sue said at the time she had asked the Education representatives if the document was current and was assured it was! Matthew has received an apology.

It was noted that all our proposed amendments were included in the revised document, but that energy spent by the Task Group had been waste of time.

It was agreed we would welcome the opportunity to be consulted when the document is reviewed in 2005.

LGBT Website

There has been positive feedback from the website and Harmit from the Policy Team has received an email from Nationwide Building Society for more information on equalities policies. It was suggested that we should have a counter to gauge how many people are accessing our site.

Jane asked for a big vote of thanks from the group to Matthew and Jase for getting the website up and running. This was unanimously agreed and applauded.

Planning Partnership for Older People

Annette, Matthew and Helen attended this meeting held at Civic Offices. It was a general conference on older people, not specifically for LGBT community. Jane asked if there will be a policy review on gay couples in sheltered accommodation? It was agreed that this should be an item for a future meeting of the coalition.

Open Day

Nick reported that the Coalition Open Day on 24th March was well attended by Councillors and Senior Council Officers. There was an opportunity to meet Terry Scragg regarding Fostering. Terry indicated he was very happy to attend one of our meetings to discuss Social Services policies. It was agreed he would be invited to the 2nd June meeting.

Harassment Officers

Nick reported that the Council has launched the Harassment Policy on 1 April and named officers have been trained to deal with any enquiries.

Any Other Business

Matthew was disappointed to inform the group, a letter sent to Sally requesting a £500 donation to the Consortium of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Voluntary and Community Organisations on behalf of the Network of Individuals and Organisations Working with Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Young People. Sally was on holiday and the letter was never redirected to us to study, therefore there was potentially a missed opportunity to use up the last of our budget. Matthew has alerted Sally to this issue. Matthew also added that a shorter name for this organisation would be helpful.

A general debate ensured to discuss donating funds and it was agreed that any donations must be given to groups who have a good track record and that a full committee meeting must be held to approve of any donations.

Equality Forums

Helen, Sue and Christine have voiced their concern that the above forum is often dominated by another group representative who often dominates the Equality forum, making it virtually impossible to progress any agenda items. It was agreed we would write to Sally Thorpe and ask for an independent facilitator.

Date of next meeting is: Wednesday 5th May at 7 pm in Committee Room 2