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New French Partnership Numbers |
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By Rex Wockner International News Report Pope Denounces Gay Families
Pope John Paul II denounced gay families October 14.
Speaking to 300,000 people in St. Peter's Square for the Jubilee of the Family, part of the church's millennium celebrations, John Paul said: "No one but parents can know just how important it is for children to have both figures -- that of a mother and of a father. "It is not a step forward for civilization to favor those tendencies which put in the shade that elementary truth and would like to see themselves put on the same legal footing." New French Partnership Numbers
Registered partners 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. Polls show that 70 percent of the French population supports the law. 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. The Netherlands' also is in the final stages of legalizing traditional marriage for gays. It should be available to Dutch residents by January 1.
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