The Civil Partnership Act includes “dissolution” (not “divorce”) which governs how assets, etc. will be split if your civil partnership falls apart.

Your Will, if you have one, will be automatically revoked if you register under the Civil Partnership Act. If you want to leave anything to anyone other than your civil partner, you will therefore need to draft a new Will.

Entering into a Civil Partnership doesn't give you automatic rights to survivor benefits - married couples would automatically get these benefits.

State Pension & contracted out rights in private sector schemes guarantee retrospective benefits to Civil Partners only to 1988.

The Civil Partnership Act came into force on 5 December 2005. From this day gay and lesbian couples could register their intent, at a Register Office, to form a Civil Partnership. Partnership ceremonies were allowed from 21 December 2005.

Civil Partnership gives same-sex partners who reside together legal protection under the law. However, the benefits of civil partnerships are fewer than those of full marriage.

Gays all over the world are fighting for equal protection under the law, including legal gay marriage. Some may think granting civil, registered or domestic partnerships is enough- seeking to preserve the legal definition of marriage as between a man and a woman. But, did you know most civil, domestic and registered partnership laws around the world provide fewer benefits than full marriage? So in many cases, life-long partners are denied some or all of the rights of marriage simply based on their sexual orientation.

Spain became the third European country after the Netherlands and Belgium to legalise same-sex marriage between native Spanish citizens and also registered foreigners living in Spain. The proposal was a key point in the manifesto of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the left-wing PSOE, Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), when it swept to power in the wake of the Madrid railway bombings of 2004 and the right-wing Partido Popular's disastrous attempts to represent the attacks as ETA actions. Mr Zapatero said that same-sex marriage was a characteristic of a "modern and tolerant society".

The law gives Spanish and resident same-sex couples the right to marry and the same rights of ownership, inheritance and adoption as married heterosexuals. Importantly, it will also improve the legal situation for children born into or adopted by lesbian or homosexual households, giving them civil and inheritance rights currently denied them under law.

When the 187-147 majority vote was passed, prime minister Zapatero said, "We are not legislating, ladies and gentlemen, for remote unknown people. We are expanding opportunities for the happiness of our neighbours, our work colleagues, our friends, our relatives." The Roman Catholic right opposition responded with cries of "shame!" Some even accused Zapatero of unleashing a "virus" on Spanish society. Certain bishops and ayuntamientos have said they will refuse to acknowledge these unions, although now that the law has been passed this is in itself a crime. An estimated 62 per cent of Spanish people support the move to legalise same-sex marriages.