Eagle (left) and Exall after the marriage

London, Sept. 28: While the Indian government and society in general agonise over whether the time has now come to decriminalise homosexuality between consenting adults, matters have progressed to such an extent in Britain that a woman minister yesterday felt able to marry her lesbian lover openly in a civil partnership ceremony.

In the middle of combating the worst financial crisis the world has seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s, Britain’s treasury minister Angela Eagle yesterday “married” her partner of 18 years, Maria Exall, a British Telecom engineer, at Southwark Register Office in south London.

Eagle, the only openly lesbian member of the House of Commons, wore a white tailored jacket and black trousers for her big day.

Exall chose a sharp black trouser suit.

After the ceremony, the couple beamed happily, posed for the cameras and kissed before 50 guests who had been invited to the wedding.

Homosexuality was first decriminalised in certain categories in 1967. The age of consent was lowered to 16 — the same as for heterosexual sex — in 2002.

Same sex couples are now able to enter into civil partnerships, placing them almost on a par with men and women with traditional marriages.

In 2005, the Civil Partnership Act created a parallel legal structure to marriage, giving homosexual couples all the rights and responsibilities of marriage, including the eligibility to apply to adopt children.

While Britain has changed beyond recognition on same sex relationships, the Indian authorities, while usually not prosecuting acts in private, have chosen not to get rid of the British era statute dating from 1860 called Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that criminalises “carnal intercourse against the order of nature”.

Nine years ago when Deepa Mehta’s Fire, which includes a love-making scene between characters played by Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das, was released in India, cinemas in Delhi and Mumbai were attacked by Shiv Sainiks and Bajrang Dal workers. Only in Calcutta were audiences and ushers able successfully to fight back and continue with the screening.

However, the differences in attitudes between Britain and India is reflected in the remark made by Manohar Joshi, then Maharashtra chief minister, who supported the acts of vandalism by the protesters.

“I congratulate them for what they have done,” he said. “The film’s theme is alien to our culture.”

Britain’s contemporary culture, one of the most liberal in the world, was reflected yesterday by the country’s treasury minister who said she was delighted to be entering into a union made possible by the Labour Government’s Civil Partnerships Act of 2004, whose passage she assisted through Parliament.

Eagle’s twin sister, also called Maria, said after the ceremony: “It’s been great, everyone was very pleased and they are very much in love.”

After the ceremony the newlyweds and their guests returned to Eagle’s house for a reception. A further celebration was held later in the evening at the Bread and Roses pub in Clapham, south London.

Eagle, a keen cricketer, first met Exall at the Peckham Labour Party. Eagle, who has been a member of Parliament since 1992, came out as a lesbian soon after the 1997 election.

“We have been together for 18 years and after the civil partnership act came in we both knew that we wanted to,” Eagle said.