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Partner Legislation Introduced in Spain Belgian Partner Law is Unpopular |
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By Rex Wockner
International News Report
French Partner Law Proves Popular
About 14,000 couples -- more than half of them gay -- have gotten
hitched since France's domestic-partnership law took effect last
October.
Couples form Civil Solidarity Pacts at local court houses and acquire marriage rights and obligations in areas such as income tax, inheritance, housing, immigration, health benefits, job transfers, synchronized vacation time, responsibility for debts, and social welfare. The law does not grant marriage rights in the areas of parental rights, adoption or medically assisted procreation. Several other European nations -- including Denmark (and Greenland), Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden -- have gay-only registered-partnership laws that grant more than 99 percent of the rights and obligations of matrimony. Partner Legislation Introduced in Spain Members of Parliament from Catalonia introduced a gay and heterosexual partnership measure into Spain's Congress of Deputies May 8. The "Law on Stable Unions of Couples" would confer marriage-like rights and obligations in such areas as alimony, child support, death benefits and Social Security, Belgian Partner Law is Unpopular
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