Recognizing (and Resisting) Regulation: Attitudes to the Introduction of Civil Partnership

Abstract

This article is an exploration of lesbians' and gay men's views about the introduction of civil partnership in the UK. The article draws on 10 in-depth interviews carried out as part of a wider research project examining legal consciousness and sexuality. The focus is to explore some of the more 'critical' views about the effects of legal recognition that were raised by participants in this study. I begin by outlining the theoretical and methodological approaches used in this exploration of lesbians' and gay men's experiences of the introduction of civil partnership. I then move on to analyse participants' views about the legal recognition of same-sex relationships, focusing on two themes: the complex interplays between recognition and regulation; and participants' views about the uneasy relationship between civil partnership and marriage.