CIVILLY YOURS!

07/06/06: The advent of Civil Partnerships has led to furore on the one side, jubilation on the other, and, in private, to thousands of gay couples nationwide looking at each other askance and wondering whether to take the plunge. However one Lancaster couple has had no hesitation whatsoever in tying the knot - and to celebrate the legal formalising of their union Michael Nunn and John Burkinshaw actually commissioned the world premiere of an opretta to be specially performed after the ceremony in Lancaster's Ashton Memorial.

Mozart wrote Bastienn und Bastienne in 1768 when he was only 12 years old. The libretto was based on Ben Crick's translation from the German - and was adapated specially (as Jules and Sandy) for the occasion by Michael and John with assistance from the Director, Ben Muir (of Kampus/Duke of Lancaster fame and other theatrical venues too). Thus the claim that it was a world premiere of this story of the couple whose relationship begins to founder in the shoals of jealousy and pride before being guided to safe harbour by a combination of wisdom, guile and finally, open hearted love.

The musicians were the Skipton Building Society Camerata, directed by Ben Crick, with Michael himself joining them on the harpsichord. The players were all professional, many from Leeds-based Opera North, and at least one of them came up from London for the occasion.

They performed with vivacity and wit and I and the all the other guests were both enchanted and tickled.

Michael edited, arranged and realised all the music himself except the Purcell Golden Sonata (at the Signing). The Latin Grace - Gloria patri et filio.. - by Richard Dering (1580 - 1632) was the world premiere of his arrangement from original sources. Dering was the topic of Michael's Durham Music BA dissertation.

Michael and John are already well known on these pages - Michael has been Virtual-Lancaster's Chief Arts Correspondent since 2003 and John is a staff photographer. So I know them well, and, like many people these days, I didn't see that a bit of paper would make a whole lot of difference to how one felt. But it does, doesn't it?

I wasn't expecting to be so moved by the whole event - but it kept coming home to me, over and over again, how far we have come - when I was a child people would not have been honouring these two great-hearted, generous souls at the Ashton Memorial. Oh no. So many innocent, worthy people have suffered so appallingly at the hands of the state - and of their neigbours and even their families. It isn't long ago that we lived in a state of shameful, vicious pogrom with collaborators in every house, classroom and factory. Some still creep around in their cliques, laying their poison where they can, clothing their bigotry in the stolen cast-offs of religion and 'science'.

So it is very good and right to come out now, into the sunshine, and give praise that there is a truer justice and it means that honest folk can bring their harvest to the table and share with their neigbours.

Kate Thomas,the Deputy Superintendent Registrar and Ceremonies Officer of the Lancashire Registration Service expressed the situation perfectly in her speech:

"Most of you here know that John and Michael have been together for nearly eight years now, and have enjoyed a deep, loving, caring relationship which has grown into a committed partnership.

"John and Michael have decided to take advantage of the new legislation which came into effect only six months ago. At today’s Ceremony they will make a formal public declaration of their partnership and of their love for each other. When they have done that, and signed it, in my presence, and duly witnessed, and in front of everybody here, only then will their Partnership become legally valid.

"I cannot wave a magic wand and tell them that they now suddenly partners. We all know of the length, depth and duration of their love and commitment. They have been together for nearly eight years now. In fact, for 7 years, 9 months, 28 days, sixteen hours and, er.... three minutes. Or, putting it another way, that’s 2,504 days. And nights.

"Let us put all this in a wider, human and global context. This Ceremony, and all others like it, is also a milestone in the history of human rights, freedom and democracy. Western civilisation, and its views on sexuality, have moved on considerably in the last hundred years since the tragic death of Oscar Wilde (on the same day as John’s birthday, incidentally) after his humiliation and degradation in prison, just because he happened to love and enjoy sex with his own kind – as well as with women too.

"Since then, and particularly in John and Michael’s lifetime, love between two men has been demoted from a criminal offence, or a psychological disturbance, to a legitimate, lawful activity and lifestyle.

"The first legislative changes in the United Kingdom came in 1967 when same-sex acts were partly decriminalised.

"Today we can all acknowledge and be grateful for these long-overdue changes both in the law and in the perceptions of the general public. But not everywhere. The authorities in Russia only this last week banned a Gay Pride Festival in Moscow, and Polish armed police recently stormed a popular and busy gay-friendly bar in the capital, Warsaw.

"Whilst this discrimination is undoubtedly a cause for concern and solidarity, we in Western Europe, and particularly here in Lancaster today, can be grateful for the formal legal and general wider recognition that today’s Ceremony bestows on John and Michael’s relationship.

"So to sum up, then, we are all here to acknowledge their established relationship, and to share, endorse and celebrate their happiness and love with a great party and exotic entertainment. And to give them our best wishes and support for their love today, tomorrow, and next week, next month, next year."

And so say all of us!

with love
satori
7/6/06

All the photographs used in this article were taken by Lorraine Griffiths (LG Photography)