Media hails first gay divorce

By Marc Shoffman • December 8, 2006 - 0:00

Now the phones have stopped ringing, and Fleet Street can rejoice after one couple took the bait this week and have split, according to reports.

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Since the clock stuck midnight on Tuesday 5 December 2006 the mainstream press has been desperately scraping the barrel searching for the first gay couple in a civil partnership to divorce.

The PinkNews.co.uk phones were jammed with researchers, and some more high profile broadsheets coyly asking, "Do you know any civil partners getting a divorce now that it's been a year since the legislation?"

Now the phones have stopped ringing, and Fleet Street can rejoice after one couple took the bait this week and have split, according to reports.

The Daily Mail, The Mirror, The Daily Record, and even The Daily Telegraph are today running a story along the lines of, "wow, gay couples can split up as well as get hitched!"

Darryl Bullock, 42, and Mark Godfrey, 32, are being described as the first couple to end their civil partnership.

They will now have to wait until December 21, a year after the first ceremonies were held, to file a petition for a dissolution. It must include the reasons for their split.

Gay lawyers at QueerPod said yesterday that there has been very little demand for legal advice to dissolve a civil partnership, and claimed most divorces were coming from heterosexual couples where one partner was planning a civil partnership.

At least now we can expect the media to calm down and stop treating the gay community like mice in a laboratory.

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