A lot of people think that a civil partnership and a marriage is the same thing.
When two people of the opposite sex fall in love and decide to get married, they are entered into a legal agreement with the law that states the partner as the next of kin. This means that, should anything ever happen to the partner, all the couple's belongings, savings and children will fall into the custody of the one person on the planet that the individual in question decided to spend the rest of their life with.
However, when two people of the same sex fall in love and decide to get married, they are only legally allowed a civil partnership. This, unlike a marriage, leaves each of the individuals' families as their next of kin. So, in this scenario, if anything were to happen to one partner, custody of that partner's possessions, savings and any adopted or surrogate children biologically related to them, falls into the custody of that person's family. Not the man or woman they have decided to spend the rest of their life with.
This means that if an individual that is gay has come from a homophobic family, or a family that doesn't like their partner, (let's face it, a lot of families don't like the person their children fall in love with) should anything happen to them, their family has no legal obligation to allow their partner to any possessions, savings, or entitlement to see their children.
Despite the fact that this person fell in love and decided to spend the rest of their life with their partner, simply because a civil partnership is not the same as a marriage. It's not the same at all.
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