More than 10,000 people have tied the partnership knot in Switzerland since a new law made civil partnerships possible for homosexual couples five years ago.

The trip to the register office has been a life-changing event for many, giving official recognition to their union and securing rights that married heterosexual couples take for granted.

... but when it comes to children, homosexual couples are treated differently. Adoption and assisted reproduction are still off the agenda for them.

... a single gay man or lesbian woman can adopt in Switzerland. Homosexuals only lose the right to adopt when they enter into a registered partnership.

... has taken her fight for equal parent status, unsuccessfully, to the Federal Court. An appeal to the European Court of Human Rights is underway.

... Pink Cross says up to 30,000 children in Switzerland are growing up in so-called rainbow families, with at least one homosexual or bisexual parent. Other estimates put the figure at 6,000