Typography & design by
Richard Wolfströme

Exhibition and installation
by Standard 8

Website
Words William Shaw
Design Richard Wolfströme
Photography Kenny Laurenson

Publishing consultant Adrian Driscoll

An Unmadeup Production

It’s only a bit of paper

The Town Hall, Bartholomew Square

Bruce had called the taxi. "We don’t want to be early," Nas had niggled. But here it is outside, waiting.

So now they’re early, Bruce and Nas and their two sisters. After the short ride from Kemptown, the taxi deposits them outside the Town Hall, Bruce and Nas smart in jackets and ties, the two sisters in their big hats. (Nas’s sister isn’t really a hat person. Bruce’s sister has lent her one.)

"It’s better than being late," says Bruce. In amongst the early day-trippers, they order coffee.

Outside, by the Town Hall steps, waits an elderly chap with a camera. He’s holding a wallet full of pictures of couples. "It’s £30 for six."

Nas ignores him, walking on, but the sister-witnesses in their hats insist they hire him.

Today Nas and Bruce will become the 600th couple to sign a Civil Partnership document in Brighton since the law changed on December 5th 2005. Like Nas, Bruce is proud to live in a place where things like this happen, but truthfully, as far as he’s concerned, this is just a legal document. A partnership finally gives him and Nas something they had always been denied. After 26 years together, 18 as business partners, they don’t need a piece of paper to prove how much they love each other. But what would become of the other if one of them should die? What if, say, Nas’s family demanded a religious funeral? Bruce wouldn’t have had a say – until today.

When they first met their relationship was illegal. Nas had been 18. Though Bruce was not much older, technically Nas had been underage. Ridiculous. It makes you realise how much has changed.

Now inside, before the registrar and the old photographer, the couple sign the Civil Partnership document and exchange the two second-hand gold rings that Nas bought at the last minute yesterday from Lambton’s.

Bruce has always been quite dismissive. It’s just a piece of paper. But right now, as he leans forward to kiss Nas, their sisters looking proudly on, Bruce feels a lump in his throat.