Happy new year to you all! As you know, just before Christmas we took a major step towards opening civil partnerships to all, when we went to the High Court to issue our judicial review claim. The human rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell, who has been a consistent and principled advocate of both same-sex marriage and full civil partnership equality, joined us outside the court. We were also joined by Professor Robert Wintemute, a legal scholar at King’s College London, and tireless advocate of equal civil partnerships. Our campaign and visit to the court was covered extensively in the media, giving us the opportunity to draw even more people’s attention to the following: • Why some might understandably and legitimately be unwilling or unable to get married, but want a civil partnership • The clear and present discrimination in the law that prevents us and many other long-term cohabiting couples from becoming civil partners • A potential remedy for this anomaly through supporting our legal effort and petitioning the Government Equalities Office to take action Some of you may have heard us on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour and Radio 5 Live. Here’s a selection of some of the best coverage: 1) BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04vdy12 (from 01.10 to 10.28) 2) BBC Radio 5 Live: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04vdyvm (from 01.50.43 to 01.56.07) 3) BBC Radio 4 World at One: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04vdzy9 (from 35.26 to 41.24) 4) The BBC’s legal affairs correspondent, Clive Coleman, reporting from outside the High Court: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-30590344 5) BBC News online: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-30586950 What’s next? In the coming months, we plan to continue using multiple avenues to garner public and political backing, and act on the numerous offers of support we have received from public and political figures. We will be in touch with updates and further actions you can take shortly. In the meantime, please continue to encourage others to sign the petition (http://change.org/civilpartnershipsforall) and contribute to our funding drive (http://www.gofundme.com/civilpartnerships). Also, please feel free to write to us at equalcivilpartnerships@gmail.com with your thoughts or suggestions, and we will do our best to respond. In particular, if you would like to tell us why you support equal civil partnerships and/or why you would like to enter a civil partnership yourself, then please do so. We are planning to create a website, in which we will include testimonials from you about your views and experiences. Please let us know if you would like us to include your name on the website or if you would prefer to remain anonymous. Let’s make 2015 the year when the UK finally commits to full relationship equality! Thank you for your ongoing commitment and support. With warm wishes, Rebecca and Charles