Gay couples begin registering in the UK
The Civil Partnership Act, which was passed in November last year, gives gay couples the same property and inheritance rights as married heterosexual couples and entitles them to the same pension, immigration and tax benefits.

From December 5, same-sex couples were able to tell register offices of their aim to form a civil partnership but must wait 15 days to be able to do so.

However, unlike those in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Canada, Britain's civil partnership is not a marriage. Britain's procedure is an exclusively civil one in which the partnership becomes binding with the partners signing certain documents; whereas a marriage becomes binding when partners exchange spoken words in a civil or religious ceremony.

According to local reports, some 1,200 couples scheduled ceremonies set to take place between Dec 19 in Northern Ireland and Dec 21 in England and Wales.

Popular singer Elton John has announced plans to enter into a civil partnership Dec 21 with his longtime partner, David Furnish, a filmmaker.

"It is a major, major change," Furnish said in a recently published interview. "It is one of the defining issues of our times. And I applaud Britain for embracing the diversity of our society."

Ex-Wham star George Michael has meanwhile hit out at reports which claimed that he is planning to marry his partner Kenny Goss, Michael insisted the pair would only consider a same-sex union for legal purposes.

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Robbie: I'm not gay; wins suit over gay sex claims
Despite having joked that he is gay on several occasions and being branded a "bona fide gay boy" by gay magazine Attitude last year, Robbie Williams, had accepted substantial but undisclosed libel damages on Tuesday from publishers of a newspaper and magazines that claimed he had sex with several men, according to the BBC.

The 31-year-old former Take That star, who is also known to be well humoured about quips about him being gay or bisexual, was reported to have had numerous gay encounters with strangers in an August 2004 issue of The People, a Sunday tabloid, and two other magazines.

The report in The People, also suggested that Williams was about to deceive the public with the publication of a book, Feel, that would say he only had sex with women.

The defendants, British publishing groups MGN Limited, publisher of The People, and Northern & Shell PLC, publisher of Star and Hot Stars magazines, agreed to publish prominent apologies to the singer and to pay damages and legal costs.

At a hearing at the High Court in London, Tom Shields, the pop singer's solicitor said a newspaper article had alleged that while Williams was "pretending" that his only sexual relations had been with women "in reality he was a homosexual who had engaged in casual and sordid homosexual encounters with strangers."

He added, "Mr Williams is not and never has been homosexual."

Tris Reid-Smith, editor of UK's only national lesbian and gay newspaper, The Pink Paper, was quoted in The Independent as saying: "I don't know whether he does it for publicity or because he thinks it's funny. It's a bit rich then to turn around when someone else says you're gay and get damages out of them."

He added: "It took Jason Donovan a long time to be forgiven. If people think he [Williams] thinks the concept of being gay is offensive, people will be quite upset about that. The idea that he's obsessed with his sexuality to the point that he's prepare to sue over it, means he's a bit out of touch with reality. If he finds being thought a liar or promiscuous offensive, that's a different matter."

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