Warship to host gay wedding
One of the 19th Century’s fastest and largest battleships is set to make more waves when she hosts her first civil partnership.
Lieutenant Commander Jim Phillips, 31, will become the second Royal Navy officer to have a same sex ceremony when he registers his partnership to Marcus Rutter on HMS Warrior this weekend.
Lt-Cdr Phillips, a weapons engineer officer, told Portsmouth Today, “I’d say a significant proportion of my colleagues know I’m gay but there have been no problems or prejudices at all. It’s been work as usual.”
“I think most people are mature and educated enough for it not to be an issue.”
They met on the internet and after months of emails, and web chats, got together in March 2001. Around 70 guests are expected for the ceremony which takes place on the couples’s fifth anniversary.
The Warrior is known as the pride of Queen Victoria, launched in the 1860s, it revolutionaries warship construction. It was fuelled by steam and sail.
