Marriage law and the month-old "Registration of Partnership" law are now virtually identical in The Netherlands.

The government said February 6 it is removing the only clause that made the two laws significantly different: Registered partners will now be permitted to adopt children.

"There must be better legal protection of children brought up by two people of the same sex," the cabinet said in a prepared statement. "That means adoption must be possible for two people of the same sex."

The cabinet also granted non-biological parents equal say in children's upbringing. "This right is acquired automatically if a child is born within a registered partnership," the government said.

Even though there are now no significant differences in the rights and obligations of married heterosexual couples and gay/lesbian or straight registered partners, registered partnership is still not marriage itself. Dutch activists, therefore, plan to continue to fight for the right to marry under the regular matrimony laws.

Denmark, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden also have registered-partnership laws. In general, the laws grant all rights of matrimony except access to adoption, artificial insemination and church weddings. Hungary recognizes common-law gay marriage, withholding only the right to adoption.

GAY TRADE UNION CONFERENCE PLANNED

Gay groups and trade unions are staging The 1998 International Conference on Trade Unions, Homosexuality and Work in Amsterdam this summer prior to the Gay Games.

"Trade unions are responsible for defending all workers rights, and sometimes explicitly stand for human rights in general," organizers said. "Still, many trade unions do not have a tradition in defending the rights of lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender workers. The international conference, during the last three days of July, is meant to serve as a platform for exchange of experience and information."

For more information write:
P.O. Box 732
NL-2700 AL Zoetermeer
The Netherlands.
E-mail: modijk@knoware.nl.
Phone: 011-31-30-273- 2627.
Fax: 011-31-30-271-0512.
Web: http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/modijk/.

Rex Wockner's weekly international news reports dating back to May 1994 can be searched at http://www.wockner.com.

The reports in their original form are archived at http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/world/wockner.html, which also archives Wockner's Quote Unquote column and some of his longer gay-press articles.