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Passes a 'Life Partnership' Bill |
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By Rex Wockner International News Report
Part one gives registered couples spousal rights and obligations in areas such as tenancy, inheritance, hospital visitation, health insurance, immigration, child custody and alimony. Part one does not need approval from the more conservative upper house of parliament and will become law in a few months. Part two, which equalizes gay couples in areas such as taxation and welfare benefits, does need approval from the Bundesrat, and faces a tough battle there.
Such laws "disfigure the divine project of matrimony, damage the family, and produce negative effects on society and on new generations," the church said. Elsewhere, gay couples have nearly all rights of marriage in Denmark, France, Greenland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the U.S. state of Vermont. Beginning in January, gay couples in the Netherlands will have access to full marriage under the regular marriage laws. |
The lower house of Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, passed a
two-part gay "life partnerships" bill November 10.
