Civil partnerships in the UK, which are currently available only to gay couples, could be opened up to straight couples for the first time thanks to a new bill which will soon be debated in Parliament. The move would remedy an inequality in the law and also make it easier for straight couples to commit to each other without having to go as far as getting married.

Justine Greening, the Education Secretary and minister for equalities, recently said the same rules should apply to all couples, straight or gay. One straight couple, Charles Keidan and Rebecca Steinfeld, have taken the Government to court after they were blocked from getting a civil partnership. Their case will reach the Supreme Court next year after they argued denying them the right to enter a civil partnership violated their human rights. They objected to marriage as a patriarchal institution which they refused to enter on ideological grounds, but said they would enter a civil partnership.

Other supporters of the proposed change argue that civil partnerships are a cheap and easy way for couples to guarantee that their relationship will be recognised in the eyes of the law. The proposed changes would help stabilise families with unmarried parents. Despite only accounting for a fifth of couples, more than half of family breakdown occur in unmarried families.