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UK cities race for first gay wedding

Rivals to tie the gay knot * WESTMINSTER: There are an estimated 400,000 gay people in London and Soho is their mecca. Old Compton Street, with its gay bars and rainbow flags, is Soho's spiritual center. G-A-Y on Charing Cross Road is one of Europe's biggest nightclubs for gays and lesbians. Acts with many gay followers, such as Westlife, have performed there. * BRIGHTON: Of the 161,000 population, an estimated 40,000 are gay and the city is famous for its Gay Pride Festival. The hub of the gay scene is Kemptown -- nicknamed "Camptown" -- a thriving area which has many bars, cafes and nightclubs, especially around St James's Street and the Old Steine.

At stake are millions of "pink pounds," massive media coverage, renown for tolerance and the status as the country's symbolic gay capital -- all over where the first gay wedding will take place.

The tussle between Westminster in central London and Brighton on the south coast of England to stage England's first such union has involved secret plans for midnight maneuvers and an intense determination to provide the backdrop for the historic breakthrough.

Both will register their first same-sex civil partnerships at exactly the same time -- 8am on Dec. 21, the first day such unions become legal in England and Wales. But the seaside resort has edged ahead of its London rival in its attempts to corner a market in gay couples tying the knot.

Almost 400 pairs of gay men and lesbians have applied to Brighton and Hove City Council to hold their nuptials in the area, and 198 will have their unions registered before the new year. In contrast, Westminster Council, which includes the gay mecca of Soho, has only 132 ceremonies planned.

"They'll all have filled in the forms in advance via the Internet so all the three couples will have to do is sign their names and wait for a button to be pressed. It will only take a matter of seconds."

Westminster Council spokeswoman

Both have chosen their first couples carefully. Roger Lockyer, 77, and his 66-year-old partner, Percy Stevens, who have been together for 40 years, will be the first gay couple to have their union recognized at Marylebone Town Hall in Westminster.

"They are very young at heart, very excited and plan to enjoy it as much as they can," a council spokeswoman said.

However, Brighton may prove the more photogenic location. At the same time as Lockyer and Stevens, the city wisly see the marriage of three couples, standing side by side, in a ceremony lasting only a few seconds. Each couple will have a registrar overseeing their union. They include the Reverend Debbie Gaston and Elaine Cook, her partner of 16 years, and Gino Meriano -- who runs Pink Weddings in Weybridge, Surrey -- and his boyfriend, Mike Ullett.

"They'll all have filled in the forms in advance via the Internet so all the three couples will have to do is sign their names and wait for a button to be pressed. It will only take a matter of seconds," said a council spokeswoman. The ceremony will be relayed on a big screen at Brighton's Hilton Metropole hotel so that friends and relations can watch proceedings.

Brighton has marketed itself energetically as the perfect location for gay weddings. When plans to allow same-sex unions were announced, it sought to steal a march by holding its first one as the clock struck midnight on Dec. 20. But under the Civil Partnerships Bill the registration of such weddings can only happen during the same hours as heterosexual weddings: 8am-6pm.

The Bill gives gay people who have their civil partnership registered the same property and inheritance rights as married couples and other advantages in pensions, immigration and tax matters. Ministers expect 22,000 to have taken place by 2010. The UK will become the fifth country to allow gay couples to "marry" after Holland, Canada, Belgium and, since July, Spain.

Westminster reinforced its newfound determination to woo and welcome gay people last week when it scrapped a long-standing ban on rainbow flags flying above gay bars, clubs and shops in Soho after recognizing their "important tradition" in the area. London's mayor, Ken Livingstone, welcomed the U-turn as proof that "London is making great progress as one of the most gay- and lesbian-friendly cities in the world."

But neither Brighton nor Westminster will gain a place in history as the first place in the UK to stage a gay wedding. That distinction will go to Derry in Northern Ireland, which plans to hold one at 9am on Dec. 19, beating two lesbians marrying in Belfast by an hour, because civil partnerships can start being registered two days before England and Wales.
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