When it comes to civil unions in Northland, it seems nobody wants to go first.
Civil unions - legally recognised commitments between two people of the same or opposite sex - can now be registered.
From today, Northland's 24 official civil-union celebrants will be able to hold commitment ceremonies for those couples
who have obtained a licence from the Department of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
Well ... they would if they had any customers but, so far, nobody is exactly knocking down the celebrants' doors.
None of the several celebrants spoken to by the Northern Advocate yesterday had taken any bookings for civil unions and no licences have been obtained from the department in Northland.
Whangarei celebrant Stewart Bowden said a gay Auckland couple was interested but "didn't want to be the first".
Mr Bowden wondered whether everybody was "standing at the back of the queue not wanting to go first".
He had thought carefully before deciding to become a civil-union celebrant. In the end, he wanted to make sure ceremonies were done "properly and nicely" for "people who were prepared to commit to a relationship which is a marriage by any other name".
Dargaville celebrant Maureen Downey said she decided to celebrate civil unions because she wanted to "serve all people" in her community.
Most civil-union celebrants are also marriage celebrants, but not all marriage celebrants have opted to celebrate civil unions.
Like several other Northland celebrants, Mrs Downey was curious to know who were her fellow celebrants, as approved by the Department of Internal Affairs.
The department's list of celebrants in Whangarei is: Eileen Ace, Gwendoline Anderson, Stewart Bowden, Kathryn Bowmar, Fay Colthurst, Esme Connell, Kenneth Delamore, Jacqueline Gardner, Carl Groshinski, Robyn Hamilton Palmer, Allan Lather and Stephanie McMillan.
Civil-union celebrants in other Northland towns are Dennise Brownlie, Matakohe; Maureen Downey, Lilian Radich and Riini van Biene, Dargaville; Paul Eggleton, Russell; Frances Ford, Maureen Honiss, Heather Townsend and Robyn McPhail, Kerikeri; Libby Nunn, Kaitaia; Viginia Paquay, Mangonui; Te and Wallace Wihongi, Kaikohe.
