Civil unions - The sky hasn't fallen in

A year has passed since the first Civil Union occurred in New Zealand.

While there hasn't been a rush of Civil Union's the fact is that 458 unions have occurred in the past 12 months. (Just over 2% of the total number of marriages in the same 12 months).

Interesting the critics who claimed that the introduction of civil unions would undermine marriage are slightly quiet. If they say anything they now say civil unions are irrelevant to the majority of people due to the low numbers.

Some of the critics do concede that for some people they are important.

What is clear for the 916 people, their family and friends the civil union bill is important.

Welcome to 2006

Sydney at 40c+ so too hot to go out to the beach so time to catch up on all the backdated news stories and tidy up sites.

2005 saw New Zealand move forward on Civil Unions. Australia in fact moved nowhere with equal recognition on many areas still not achieved for same sex couples.

Of course 2006 sees the first year of the new government in New Zealand. This is a minority government which will result in few further reforms for the next three years given the conservative nature of the other parties.

Australia is however worse off with the Howard government able to pass legislation through both houses without comprise. This has already seen a number of measures passed and means there is no hope of major reform on gay and lesbian issues till the next election in a couple of years. However the state system might mean some progress especially with moves by ACT on Civil Unions.

So 2006 is likely to be a year where no major gains are made on gay rights but hopefully won't see the reversal of gay rights won already.