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| Civil Unions |
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| In many places, legal recognition that is largely equal to marriage but without using the word are being extended to gay couples. In most such places, whether countries, states/provinces or cities, such recognition is called "civil unions." |
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Reuters-U.K., Posted: 8/17/2010, 12:07 PM Germany's highest court has ruled a law which makes homosexuals living in civil partnerships pay higher inheritance tax is unconstitutional. The Federal Constitutional Court said there were no legal grounds for taxing gay people who lost their partner differently from heterosexual married couples, and gave the government until 2011 to compensate those subject to the previous rules. The Karlsruhe-based court said on Tuesday the fact that heterosexual marriage could produce children did not justify higher taxation for homosexuals over inheritance. Germany has permitted civil unions for homosexuals since 2001. According to the law, surviving partners had to pay higher inheritance duties, and were also granted a lower tax exemption threshold than their heterosexual counterparts. Depending on the inheritance, homosexuals have been subject to a rate of taxation that could be up to 20 percentage points higher than heterosexual widows or widowers. The thresholds were evened out in 2008, though so far the government has only put forward a draft bill to render both sets of couples equal before the law on taxation, the court said. It was responding to an appeal lodged by a man and a woman whose respective partners had died in 2001 and 2002. Germany's LSVD lesbian and gay association welcomed the decision, but said the job was not done yet. "Lawmakers must now act as quickly as possible to ensure there is complete equality on income tax and provisioning for civil servants," spokesman Manfred Bruns said in a statement. |
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Irish Times, Posted: 7/19/2010, 9:51 AM The Civil Partnership Bill, which provides legal recognition for same-sex couples in Ireland for the first time, has today been signed into law. The Bill was signed into law by President Mary McAleese at Áras an Uachtaráin this morning. It extends marriage-like benefits to gay and lesbian couples in the areas of property, social welfare, succession, maintenance, pensions and tax. The act also offers additional rights and protections for other cohabiting couples including a redress scheme for financially dependent long-term cohabitants on the end of a relationship. Announcing the signing of the Bill today, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern described it as "one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation to be enacted since independence." "This Act provides enhanced rights and protections for many thousands of Irish men and women. Ireland will be a better place for its enactment," he said. "It is of tremendous social significance, for the couples who can now register as partners, for their friends and families - ultimately, for all of us," Mr Ahern added. Changes to the tax and social welfare code will be made in the next finance and social welfare Bills. The Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 is expected to be commenced when those changes take effect. The first civil registrations for same-sex couples are likely to take place next January. The Bill was approved by the Seanad by 48 votes to 4 at 6.30pm on Friday July 9th, having completed its passage though the Dáil the previous week.The legislation was widely supported in both the Dáil and Seanad. |
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Los Angeles Times, Posted: 7/7/2010, 5:00 AM Hawaii's governor vetoed legislation Tuesday that would have permitted same-sex civil unions, ending weeks of speculation about what she would do with the contentious, emotionally charged issue. Republican Gov. Linda Lingle acted on the last day she had to sign the bill, veto the bill or allow it to become law without her signature. The Legislature had approved it in late April. "There has not been a bill I have contemplated more or an issue I have thought more deeply about during my eight years as governor than House Bill 444 and the institution of marriage," Lingle said at a news conference. "I have been open and consistent in my opposition to same-sex marriage, and find that House Bill 444 is essentially same-sex marriage by another name." The bill would have granted gay and lesbian couples the same rights and benefits the state provides to married couples. She said voters, not politicians, should decide the fate of civil unions. "It would be a mistake to allow a decision of this magnitude to be made by one individual or a small group of elected officials," she said. For weeks, the governor heard emotional views from both supporters and opponents of the bill. She invited leaders from both sides to her standing-room-only news conference. Opponents of the measure, including many religious groups, erupted in cheers and hugs when Lingle announced her decision. "What she did was very just, and I'm very happy about it," said Jay Amina, 50, of Waianae. "It sends a good message throughout the state of Hawaii — that our people here on the islands are standing for traditional marriage." |
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BBC, Posted: 5/21/2010, 1:18 PM A heterosexual Austrian couple have embarked on a court battle to have their relationship legally recognised as a "registered partnership" - a new form of civil union for same-sex couples. Helga Ratzenboeck and Martin Seydl say they don't want a traditional marriage and insist that the law should be blind to gender and sexuality. Meanwhile, the kind of pared-down marriage they want is proving a huge hit with straight couples in France, where 95% of couples taking up the pacte civil de solidarite (Pacs) in 2009 were heterosexual. As the number of straight French couples opting for Pacs has grown, the number of marriages has shrunk, to the point that there are now two couples entering into a Pacs for every three getting married. In both Austria and France, some gay couples are fighting for the right to full marriage. Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Norway are currently the only European countries allowing same-sex marriages. But legal battles for the right to registered partnership, like Ms Ratzenboeck and Mr Seydl's, are rarer. "The couple involved already have grown up children and are not interested in adopting," says their lawyer, Helmut Graupner. "They are more interested in a more loose, modern form of partnership with a shorter time period for divorce and lower maintenance obligations afterwards." |
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Associated Press (AP), Posted: 5/3/2010, 10:52 AM Whether same-sex civil unions become legal in Hawaii is now up to Gov. Linda Lingle, whose office has been flooded with telephone calls and e-mail messages from gay rights and religious groups after the bill won approval in the waning moments of the legislative session. Ms. Lingle, a Republican, has long avoided saying whether she would veto the measure or allow it to become law. She has until July 6 to make a decision. The bill was unexpectedly revived and cleared the Legislature on Thursday, the last day of this year’s session. Religious groups do not plan the kind of large opposition rallies seen previously at the Hawaii Capitol. Instead, they will lobby Ms. Lingle directly with personal messages. “She’s kept it very close to the vest,” said Dennis Arakaki, executive director of the Hawaii Family Forum and Hawaii Catholic Conference. “She won’t let us know how she feels about it. Now we’ll know.” Mr. Arakaki is sending e-mail messages to churches and text messages to supporters urging them to contact the governor’s office to let her know how they feel about the issue. Supporters of the bill will send handwritten letters and postcards to the governor in addition to e-mail messages and phone calls asking her to approve the legislation, said Tony Wagner, the western regional field director for the Human Rights Campaign. |
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Pink News (U.K.), Posted: 3/9/2010, 10:05 AM A Christian registrar who was disciplined because she would not officiate civil partnerships has been refused permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. Lillian Ladele resigned from Islington council in 2007 after being threatened with the sack. She claims she was a victim of discrimination because of her religious beliefs. Yesterday, the Supreme Court, the highest court in the UK, said her case did not raise legal points of “general public importance”. Her lawyers have argued she was the victim of a witch-hunt and was shunned by her colleagues for refusing to carry out civil partnerships. Ms Ladele, who said her rights had been “trampled” by gay couples, is now considering whether to take her case to the European Court of Human Rights. In a statement given to the Daily Telegraph, she said: “I am actively discussing with my lawyers the possibility of an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. “When the rights of different groups clash, as they have in my case, surely there must be a proportionate attempt to balance those competing rights. In my case, one set of rights was trampled by another set of rights. “That cannot be right in a free and democratic society. I believe my case raises important issues of liberty that deserve further consideration by the courts.” |
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Times of London, Posted: 3/3/2010, 4:26 AM The House of Lords voted to lift the ban on civil partnership ceremonies in churches and other religious premises last night. Peers voted by 95 to 21 - a majority of 74 - to lift the ban which previously prevented gays and lesbians from getting “married” in such places. In a letter to The Times ten days ago, senior bishops including the Bishop of Salisbury and the Dean of Southwark expressed their support for the amendment, which was tabled by gay Labour peer Lord Alli. The move will result in an amendment to the Equalities Bill which would allow, though not compel, religious organisations to host civil partnerships. Religious language would also be permitted within the ceremonies. It is predicted that as a result there would be effectively no difference between marriage and civil partnership within the church. Critics say that the change will force clerics to take a more liberal approach to same-sex relationships. The law would allow ceremonies only among denominations who endorse gay marriage. The Quakers have already campaigned for the change in legislation, and Unitarians and liberal Jews have also already shown their support for the amendment. |
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Pink News (U.K.), Posted: 3/1/2010, 10:03 AM Foreign minister Chris Bryant said today that the British Foreign Office was encouraging other countries in the EU to recognise civil partnerships performed in the UK. Speaking at a Foreign Office event this afternoon, the minister for Europe said that it was “utterly bonkers” that in some cases, gay couples were forced to divorce and then re-register their relationships in their new countries if they move abroad in order to retain their rights and benefits. Fourteen EU states have gay marriage or civil partnerships. Two are in the process of establishing rights, while 11 do not offer any form of marriage equality. Mr Bryant, who is gay, said that only two of the 11 EU countries without gay marriage or civil partnerships had allowed British consulates to carry out civil partnerships. Britain allows its embassies to carry out the ceremonies even in countries that do not allow gay marriage or civil partnerships, so long as local officials give permission. Latvia and Bulgaria told the Foreign Office they were happy to allow these ceremonies to go ahead, while Mr Bryant said work was being done to persuade the other nine to agree. In October, it was revealed that 500 British couples had chosen to have their ceremonies in British embassies, and Mr Bryant revealed that the majority of these had taken place in Australia. Speaking about gay rights around the world, Mr Bryant singled out Poland, Jamaica and Russia in particular as countries which have poor records on gay rights. |
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Deutsche Welle, Posted: 2/18/2010, 1:40 PM A heterosexual couple in Austria is fighting for the right to enter into a registered civil partnership - introduced for homosexual couples in January 2010. Under current law the couple will be denied that right - but they have vowed to take the case to the country's constitutional court to overturn what they says is a discriminatory legislation. Austria introduced civil unions for gay couples on January 1, affording them some of the rights enjoyed by their heterosexual counterparts. The new legislation, passed after weeks of wrangling between the ruling Social Democrats and their conservative coalition partner in government, gives same-sex couples a status similar to traditional marriage but different in a number of respects. For instance, there are less strict rules in the event of a divorce. The heterosexual couple in question argues that this is a more modern form of union - which simply suits them better than a traditional marriage. And if it's offered to gay couples, why shouldn't it be an option for them as well? The issue at stake, they argue, is standing up against discrimination. |
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LifeSite.net (anti-gay), Posted: 1/18/2010, 12:42 PM *WARNING: anti-gay source*: A member of the English Catholic Bishops conference, and the head of the Catholic Education Service, has denied that there is any Catholic objection to homosexual civil unions. Speaking to The Tablet, Britain’s leading left-liberal Catholic paper, Bishop Malcolm McMahon, the chairman of the Catholic Education Service, said that he had no objection to homosexuals in civil partnerships working in Catholic schools. McMahon, once tipped by Paddy Power as a contender to replace Cormac Murphy O’Connor as Archbishop of Westminster, “has promised that the Church will not investigate the private lives of applicants for the headships of Catholic schools.” The comments follow revelations of increasing difficulties faced by the Catholic school system in Britain in recruiting candidates who fully adhere to Catholic sexual teaching. Bishop McMahon told The Tablet that the Church is not interested in the “backgrounds” of “potential school leaders.” Applicants should decide for themselves “whether they were able to live according to church teaching.” |
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New York Times, Posted: 12/20/2008, 7:21 AM
QUICK LOOK:Civil unions are an inadequate substitute for marriage. Creating a separate, new legal structure to confer some benefits on same-sex couples neither honors American ideals of fairness, nor does it grant true equality. The results are clearly visible in New Jersey, which continues to deny same-sex couples some of the tangible civil benefits that come with marriage. Gov. Jon Corzine of New Jersey has long said that he would sign a measure granting the right to marry to couples of the same sex. We are heartened that he has declared that that should happen sooner rather than later. We hope Mr. Corzine intends to prod legislators into passing such a law early in the 2009 session. That would make New Jersey the first state to legalize marriage for same-sex couples through legislative action. |
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Citizen Crain, Posted: 11/18/2008, 2:12 PM
QUICK LOOK:Repealing Proposition 8, of course, but that’s not even an option until 2010, at the earliest, and may well be taken care of by the legal eagles already challenging the ballot measure in the courts. Even if Prop 8 is reversed, we are only back to where we were on Nov. 3, leaving the vast majority of same-sex couples across America with little or no recognition for their relationships or prospects for same. That’s why a growing number of us have our own modest marriage proposal. Call it Proposition 9, or Prop -8, if you’d like. It would instantly confer more than 1,200 rights and benefits to same-sex couples in every single city, state and small town in the U.S., and it’s already supported by two-thirds of Americans. What is it? A federal civil unions law. |
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Concord Monitor (N.H.), Posted: 4/1/2007, 7:27 PM
QUICK LOOK:This week, the New Hampshire state House will be asked to right a historic wrong by approving civil unions granting same-sex couples all the state rights enjoyed by heterosexual couples. It should do so resoundingly. It is antithetical to freedom to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation. That said, the Senate should not pass the bill in haste but give civil unions a full public hearing. It would serve no one's interest, least of all the gay couples who would benefit from the change, if opponents believe they have been railroaded. If the Senate passes the bill after ample discussion, Gov. John Lynch should affirm the importance of equal rights for all by signing it. After much turmoil, Vermont legalized civil unions in 2000. The change has had no effect on the lives of straight couples, but it has enhanced Vermont's reputation as a tolerant place. Some New Hampshire homosexuals fighting for the right to be united in marriage fear that their cause will be set back by the approval of civil unions. In the short run, they're probably right; in the long run, they're probably wrong. |
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