BBC newsreader Jane Hill confirms plans for civil partnership
Newsreader Jane Hill has announced on Twitter that she will enter into a civil partnership with her partner, Sara.
Hill, 42, who came out publicly in 2009, has worked as a newsreader on the BBC’s 24-hour channel for 14 years.
She wrote on Twitter: “Yes, Sara & I are getting hitched.”
She added: “Still a bit shocked I think! (and hungover).”
The Telegraph drew consternation from some quarters by including quotation marks in its headline “BBC newsreader Jane Hill is to ‘marry’ a woman cameraman”.
The paper’s celebrity news section said: “Having “outed” herself as homosexual in the BBC’s staff magazine, Jane Hill has now accepted a “marriage” proposal.
“The newsreader is to enter into a civil partnership with her girlfriend, Sara, a television cameraman.”
While Hill has received a large number of positive messages, some have questioned the Telegraph’s use of punctuation in its story.
One Twitter user claimed the Telegraph was bigoted, Hill said: “A number of us thought that about the inverted commas”.
To another message, she replied: “Let’s just say you are far from the only person who has responded that way, so we should take heart from that.”
On the subject of generally referring to civil partnerships as marriages, Peter Tatchell said: “Civil partnerships are not marriages and they are not equality. They were set up, in part, to thwart the campaign for the legalisation of same-sex marriage.
“They are not recognised as marriages in UK law, nor in any other country. While we wish civil partners every happiness, it is not appropriate to misname civil partnerships as marriages.”
