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Same Sex Marriage Legislation |
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By Rex Wockner
International News Report
Dutch gay-marriage legislation cleared its final hurdle, the
Senate, December 19 and will take effect in April.
The new laws will allow same-sex couples to marry under the same statutes as heterosexuals and to adopt children. Although several nations have passed gay registered-partnership laws, the Netherlands is the first to simply grant gay couples access to regular marriage. "We're the first country in the world where there is no distinction made on the basis of gender," said Onno Hoes of the national gay-rights group, COC.
The Vatican denounced the laws' passage. "The Catholic church contests these revolutionary innovations which in the name of freedom seek to legitimize a union regarded by the universal consciousness as going against nature," the church said. "The family in its natural and Christian model is undergoing a serious affront and is losing its role as the base of society." |
