Europe

Civil Union / Europe / Politicians — No Comments
15
Feb 11

SO WILL THE UK BE NEXT?

gay pride coloured union jack

There have been rumbles coming out of the UK for months – suggestions that the new government will back full marriage equality.  It is one of those notions that needs to be seen to be believed, I am afraid, which is why I haven’t yet jumped on the bandwagon.

Why? A number of reasons.

1) The nature of the Coalition Government in the UK (between Liberals and Conservatives) is that nothing is ever quite certain, even when all parts of the Coalition agree. In particular when it’s the minority partners in the Government, the Liberals, who are backing or implementing the idea. In this case, Lynne Featherstone, the Equalities Minister and @lfeatherstone on Twitter.

2) UK already has pretty good civil partnerships. So the need to address inequality is diminished in practice even if it remains just as strong in principle.

3) There has been a lack of unity among gay rights groups about marriage equality. Most famously the leading group Stonewall hid behind a chimera of ‘member democracy’ (it doesn’t have voting members) before finally backing equality in 2010. This was widely derided by nearly everyone from PinkNews down to the gay in the street. When your own side can’t agree, its not a good start.

4) The UK Government does actually have a series of unpopular and complicated budget challenges to deal with.  That could mean marriage equality is a great cost-free way to get back a bit of popularity (happy wedding photos beat photos of the many losers and victims of budget cuts) … it could also easily fall into the ‘too hard basket’

But on the whole I am optimistic.  I can’t show you because The Sunday Times of London newspaper now exists behind an online pay-wall, but it carried a very encouraging headline last Sunday: “Marriage law reforms expected this week to give full and equal rights to same sex marriage” …. fingers crossed! According to the paper the proposal to end the ban on same sex marriage will be announced at the same time as the government announces the time table for civil partnerships to be held in religious buildings.

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Civil Union / Court cases / Europe / Lesbian / Politicians — No Comments
28
Jan 11

FRENCH COURTS PUSHES MARRIAGE BACK INTO THE HANDS OF PARLIAMENT

France will maintain its ban on gay marriage after the constitutional court ruled that a lesbian couple with four children do not have the right to marry.

The ruling comes on the same day that a TNS Sofres opinion poll found 58 percent of French people questioned were in favour of gay marriage.

Essentially the court said that parliament should decide if the ban should be overturned, and not the constitutional authority.

“Marriage is the only solution in terms of protecting our children, sharing parental authority, settling inheritance problems and eventual custody if one of us were to die,“  Corinne Cestino and Sophie Hasslauer told AFP before the ruling.

President Nicolas Sarkozy opposed gay marriage, while the opposition Socialists support it. The couple already have a low-level civil union known as a ‘PACS’ in France. w

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Europe / Politicians — No Comments
18
Jan 11

MALAS NOTICIAS! THE PAIN FROM SPAIN

mariano rajoy

Conservative Spanish opposition leader Mariano Rajoy sounds like a real pain. More to the point he is going to become a major difficulty for Spain’s gay and lesbian community if things stay on their current track.

Spain is currently suffering unemployment rates over 20% – the economy is a disaster zone in other words. Never mind what Goldman Sachs and co might do to them next on global bond markets, there is a lot of ongoing pain and frustration.

And that makes it very easy for Spanish people to forget the beautiful words of their current Prime Minister – Zapatero (see video below) - when he introduced marriage equality five years ago.  The Opposition stands a very strong chance of winning the next election, in one year, and that could mean the end of marriage equality.   Rajoy is being vague but tough right now.  The “change” he speaks of is probably only downgrading marriage to civil unions, but he could get rid of much more than that and send the gays back to second class.

Watch out for this one!

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Civil Union / Europe / Politicians — No Comments
16
Jan 11

GAY GAINS IN IRELAND

Senator David Norris

Senator David Norris

Two great pieces of news out of Ireland in recent days:

1. The country is now recognizing same sex marriages performed in other European Union (EU) countries, though bizarrely they seem to claim to be doing is by according civil partnership rights to such couples (why? Smells of separatism to me)

2. The new leading candidate to be the next Irish President is the gay man who forced Ireland to decriminalize gay sex in the first place in 1998. Irish Senator David Norris leads the pack by a resounding margin. Norris, 66, is favored by 27 percent of voters, followed by Member of the European Parliament Mairead McGuinness at 13 percent.

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Europe / Historical / Miscellaneous / North America / Politicians / Wedding — No Comments
8
Dec 10

SAS PUMPS SOME LOVE INTO THE AIR

After all the ho0-hah about the supposed (later shown to be fake) wedding on a Virgin America flight over Canadian airspace, it is nice to get word of the first real same sex wedding in the air.

Sponsored by our lovely Scandanavian friends at SAS airlines, two couples – a gay German couple (Aleksandar Mijatovic and Shantu Bhattacherjee) and a Polish lesbian couple (Ewa Tomaszewicz and Gosia Rawińska) were married by a member of the European Parliament (Christofer Fjellner) between Stockholm and New York.

As Tomaszewicz told MSNBC, “this ceremony is not only for us, it’s also a small victory for all those who believe that one day in Poland we’ll have a normal country where everyone who loves each other can just get married.” Continue reading →

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Europe / Marriage / Politicians / Role models / Video — No Comments
5
Dec 10

E.U. VICE PRESIDENT BACKS GAY MARRIAGE AND THE “IT GETS BETTER PROJECT”

She is better known for taking on and beating Microsoft, but here is a great video from the Vice President of the European Commission, Neelie Kroes. She shows us why we need to give all kids hope of a great future, and how the right to live with or marry the person we love is an important part of that future.

Great stuff from the European Union; and a great message that I hope all 69 year old grandmothers can share!

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Civil Union / Conservatives / Europe — No Comments
3
Dec 10

HUNGARY MOVES TO BAN GAY MARRIAGE

It is predictable given the scary, winking at fascism, government in Hungary at the moment … but Hungary’s efforts to constitutionally ban gay marriage still feel like a time warp.

This is precisely the sort of thing that EU membership is supposed to effectively ban. And it is also precisely the sort of active discrimination that allowed Judge Vaughn Walker in California to rule Proposition 8 unconstitutional.

So how did this happen?  Two years ago, under a social democratic government it was a different story. Then the government actually contemplated full marriage equality. In the end they stepped back  and offered only a limited, yet still formal, relationship recognition, much like the French PACS system. (For example recognised rights include: hospital visitation, access to medical information, right to make decision about the deceased partners’ funeral, widow’s pension, immigration rights).

According to polls there is 60% support for these rights, while only 30-35% support full equality. The only attempt to introduce a marriage equality law was defeated in 2002 without debate.

The new right-wing Government led by Viktor Orban swept into power this year with huge majorities. By commanding more than two-thirds of the votes in Parliament they are effectively able to change the constitution at will.   So they is exactly what they have done: strip the constitutional court of most of its powers to rule on tax and state budget issues; order the media to censor converage of certain topics like sex and alcohol, and appoint important officials for exceptionally long nine0year terms.

Now it is the turn of women and the gays, with anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage articles forseen to be added to the Constitution.

This could turn out to be very embarrassing for the European Union – their rotating presidency is passing to the Hungarians in four weeks time.  Watch out for some fights.

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Civil Union / Europe — No Comments
20
Nov 10

FINISHING THE FRENCH REVOLUTION?

The French Revolution famously called for “liberte, egalite, fraternite” .. but the egalite (equality) has been a long time coming.

France does have a weak kind of civil unions system for gay relationships (the pacte civil de solidarité, or PACS). Better than nothing. And yet it is rather like responding to Marie Antoinette saying “let the eat cake” by offering the gays some low fat muffins instead.

So it is big news that the French Constitutional Court will hear a case by an anonymous gay couple claiming the lack of equal marriage infringes their human rights.

This is where having a French lawyer boyfriend comes in handy … He says this is significant because it marks one of the first examples of French citizens exercising a new right available since March 2010 allowing French citizens and companies to challenge the constitutionality of a given law. In this case it is Articles 75 and 144 of the Civil Code under challenge (that is, the famous Napoleonic Code) because they restrict the “personal freedom” of French citizens to marry the person of their choice.

The case has been decided to have merit by the lower Court of Cassation (supreme court over civil and criminal courts), and it is now with the highest possible court. It is however a conservative court at the moment, with a nearly all male membership including two former right-wing Presidents (Chirac and d’Estaing).

The couple taking the case to the court is from the Champagne region – which should make for a great party if they court lets them eat cake.

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Civil Union / Europe / Miscellaneous / Personal Stories — No Comments
10
Nov 10

THE TYRANNY OF MARRIAGE

Cartoon by John Crowther

I thought it would be fun for once to publish the arguments against marriage … not the against the right to marriage, but against what the institution sometimes serves up even in 2010.

From the Guardian, and inspired by the UK campaign to make both marriage and civil unions open to all.

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Australia / Civil Union / Europe / Families and Parents / Global / Lesbian / North America / Personal Stories — No Comments
5
Nov 10

THE MARRIAGE AND FAMILY ROUNDABOUT

jacqueline tomlins and sarah nichols

Go travelling abroad and it’s a case of now we’re married, now we’re not.

‘FILL out one form per family please, for transit through LAX.”

I roll my eyes at Sarah and take the form from the steward. There’s nothing like international travel for defining who you are: nationality, place of residence, marital status. For most people, ticking these boxes is unproblematic; for us, it’s a different story. ”Family?” I say to the steward. ”We’re a same-sex family – two mums, three kids, married some places, not others – one form or two?”

Read the rest of this great piece from Jacqueline Tomlins in the Sydney Morning Herald here

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