Gay pride or unholy alliance?
By Jonathan Petre,
Religion Correspondent
(Filed: 22/12/2005)

The most sweeping social reform for 40 years came to fruition yesterday when nearly 700 couples, including Sir Elton John and David Furnish, celebrated England's first gay "weddings".

To the delight of gay rights campaigners and the dismay of many Church leaders, homosexual couples "tied the knot" in ceremonies that were hardly distinguishable from civil marriages.

The sense of history was heightened by Tony Blair, who welcomed the new civil partnerships as "a modern, progressive step" of which he was proud.

The reform is widely seen as the most significant advance for homosexual rights since 1967, when the Sexual Offences Act, which partially decriminalised sex between men over 21, received royal assent. The rest