Just a piece of paper? A qualitative exploration of same-sex couples’ multiple conceptions of civil partnership and marriage

Clarke, Victoria; Burgoyne, Carole; Burns, Maree

Abstract

This paper explores 22 same-sex couples’ views on civil partnership and marriage. The data are drawn
from the qualitative phase of a larger study of money management and relational practices in same-sex
relationships. Twenty-seven participants indicated that they were more or less likely to register their
relationship as a civil partnership, 10 described themselves as undecided about partnership recognition,
and six signalled a lack of interest in civil partnership (and one provided no codeable data). This summary
necessarily glosses over the complexity of the data and the ways in which they are underpinned by
ambivalence, contradiction, and different ways of conceptualising civil partnership, marriage, relationship
recognition and celebration. We explore this complexity by presenting six themes running through the
participants’ talk about civil partnership and marriage. The paper concludes with a discussion of these
findings in relation to the (limited) existing empirical literature on same-sex marriage and relationship
recognition.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2006
• Journal: Lesbian & Gay Psychology Review
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 141-161
• Keywords: civil partnership, lesbian and gay, marriage, qualitative, same-sex, sameness, difference
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1043300
• Publisher URL: http://pss.bps.org.uk/pss/pss_review/pss_review_home.cfm