From: skolander@bahnhof.se (Bjoern Skolander) 470 Wedding Officiators Refuse to Register Swedish Same-Sex Couples 470 of the local wedding officiators in Sweden are not entitled to register same-sex couples. It is likely that the vast majority of these persons have actively declined to be authorised as partnership officiators. The total number of wedding officiators in the municipalities is 1104. 575 of these are entitled to officiate at both weddings and partnerships, 470 are only wedding officiators, and 59 only partnerships officiators. 21 out of 288 townships and municipalities lack partnership officiators, 8 out of which also lack wedding officiators. In these numbers the officiators at the district courts are not included. Partnerships can be registered at all district courts or by specific partnership officiators usually at local town halls. As the district courts are only available during office hours, the partnership officiators play an important role for same-sex couples possibilities to register their partnerships at a time of their own choice, for exampel at weekends. According to Swedish law two separate appointments are needed for a person to officiate at both weddings and registered partnerships. ------------------ Partly translated by Bjoern Skolander SOURCE: News from Swedish Lesbian/Gay Politics Published by the Swedish Federation for Gay and Lesbian Rights (RFSL) No. 6/1997 (March 20-April 10, 1997)