GAY MARRIAGE

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GAY MARRIAGE

Did you know that gay marriage is legalized in only 6 countries:

- The Netherlands (2001)

- Belgium (2003)

- Spain (2005)

- Canada (2005)

- South Africa (2006)

- Norway (2008)

- Sweden (2009)

and in some states of the USA.

REST OF THE WORLD

The following is a list of countries with civil unions. Some countries allow both same-sex and opposite-sex couples to access these schemes, like the Netherlands. Other countries, such as Britain, provide such schemes for same-sex couples only.

Andora - stable union of pairs

Argentina - civil union (City of Buenos Aires, Province of Rio Negro, City of Villa Carlos Paz)

Australia - registered partnership (Tasmania, Victoria) civil partnership (ACT)

Britain - civil partnership Couples where at least one partner is a British national may register a civil partnership in a British High Commission office here in Australia

Croatia - civil union

Czech Republic - registered partnership

Denmark - registered partnership

Finland - registered partnership

France - civil solidarity pact

Germany - life partnership

Greenland - civil union

Hungary - registered partnership

Iceland - registered partnership

Italy - civil unions are provided by a number of regional and municipal governments

Luxembourg - registered partnership

New Zealand - civil union

Mexico - civil union

Slovenia - civil partnership

Switzerland - civil union

Uruguay - civil union

AUSTRALIA

In 2009 Australia still bans recognition of same-sex marriages at the federal level, but the current Australian Labor Party government favors synchronized state and territory registered partnership legislation (as in Tasmania and Victoria). The Australian Capital Territory has civil unions.

Many same sex couples wish to marry. They want to do so for the same reasons as their opposite sex counterparts - to publicly proclaim and celebrate their love and commitment, to protect their children, to ensure legal and social recognition and for a whole host of other reasons. These couples would greatly benefit from being able to realise their choice to marry, an intensely personal choice that is widely recognised, at least for heterosexual couples, as a basic human right.

Instead of sending a message that all Australians are to be treated fairly and equally, regardless of their sexual orientation, the message currently being sent by federal law is that it is acceptable to exclude lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered persons from a central social institution and that gay relationships are inferior.

In recent years, most Australian state and territory governments, have extended to same sex couples many, though not all, of the legal and economic rights and responsibilities available to opposite sex couples. Yet gay people remain excluded from the institution of marriage itself, a distinction that undermines their human dignity and discriminates in violation of their basic right to equal legal treatment.

Some opponents of equal marriage have suggested that marriage as an institution would be weakened, even tainted, by the gay presence. Such people are, of course, free to hold whatever views they wish in respect of homosexuality and the treatment of same sex couples, but Australian law should not be based upon such degrading and offensive notions.

No group of Australians should be systemically excluded from any legal institution, let alone one as central to our society as legal marriage. It must be open to all Australians, regardless of their sexual orientation.

Some day, same sex couples in Australia will have the legal right to marry. That is inevitable. As with every major human rights advance, from the abolition of slavery to allowing women to vote, future generations will look back and wonder how anyone could have opposed such a basic human right.

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