Quote Message: I was brought up by my mother and her sister in as a stable a unit as one could possibly imagine. I’ve never considered my aunt as anything other than a parent, and to anyone who knows us, the idea that we “aren’t a family” would seem absurd. But the law says otherwise. The sisters who raised me have no legal means by which to make their relationship official, meaning that they are exempt from the rights afforded to civil partners and married couples; most importantly the right to inherit a joint tenancy, and the right to pass on a jointly owned home to each other free of inheritance tax.

I was brought up by my mother and her sister in as a stable a unit as one could possibly imagine. I’ve never considered my aunt as anything other than a parent, and to anyone who knows us, the idea that we “aren’t a family” would seem absurd. But the law says otherwise. The sisters who raised me have no legal means by which to make their relationship official, meaning that they are exempt from the rights afforded to civil partners and married couples; most importantly the right to inherit a joint tenancy, and the right to pass on a jointly owned home to each other free of inheritance tax.