The domestic bliss of Sir Elton John and husband Mr. David Furnish has been slightly ruffled – by news that Furnish is upset he does not have a knightly title.
The couple wed in the UK in December 2014, but Furnish is frustrated he wasn’t given a honorary title when they exchanged vows.
For Furnish, being his husband’s husband has a public, political dimension. He demands the honorific associated with the spouse of somebody who has earned a knighthood – if that spouse is female.
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Although David Furnish himself has done nothing that the honours bodies in Parliament want to recognise, he may have a point. If he were a woman, he would be ‘Lady John’.
But as Elton’s husband, the gay spouse gets no title of his own.
“I am for 100 per cent equality across the board for everybody, in all walks of life,” Furnish told the Daily Mail’s society columnist Sebastian Shakespeare. “So the designation of a title is an example of something we need in order to get there.
“The reality is if a woman is married to a man with a title, she gets a title. I think everybody should have the same opportunities and the same privileges and the same honours.
“I think if we could just level the playing field in life as much as possible, then we’d all be in a much better place.”
However, Furnish does not seem to acknowledge that he couldn’t really make this argument as a woman – unless he took his husband’s last name. A woman who maintains her maiden name as a surname does not receive the ‘Lady’ designation, as it attaches to her husband and is only a courtesy awarded through marriage to that person; if you share their name, you share their rank.
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Examples of ‘Ladies’ who aren’t, because they don’t choose to use their husband’s surnames, are: Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry (Lady Nugee; Sir Christopher Nugee) and the eminent biologist Professor Mary Collins (Professor Lady Hunt; Sir Tim Hunt).
Mr. Furnish would have to be Mr. David John in order to receive the ‘level playing field’ of honors to which, he insists, his marriage to Elton entitles him.
