Gay Marriages across Europe

[andrewducker]

It's been possible for gay people to get married in the Netherlands, but travelling elsewhere meant that their marriages weren't recognised.

Now, however, the EU is set to state that if people are married in one country in the EU, they are married in all of them.

I can see a lot of people moving to the Netherlands to get married...

Which will, of course, spur other countries to liberalise their laws.

About time too.

Comments

[rainstorm.livejournal.com]

about fucking time, i say.

my half-sister had a commitment ceremony in April. everyone in my family just calls it a wedding, because that's what it was. they have basically promised to love each other for the rest of their lives. i don't know if they will have a legal ceremony if/when it becomes legal, bu they might do, purely for the economical (etc) reasons..

but yay! step forward in europe! :D

the invisible hand?

[josephgrossberg.livejournal.com]

"I can see a lot of people moving to the Netherlands to get married...

Which will, of course, spur other countries to liberalise their laws."

Why do you feel that is an inevitable result? If a country is anti-homosexual, wouldn't they not mind the departure of many gays?

Re: the invisible hand?

[andrewducker]

Because they'll got to the Netherlands, get married and then go home...

well

[josephgrossberg.livejournal.com]

So what if the EU says "you have to recognize gay Dutch marriages" and Italy says "fuck that" ... what happens?

I mean, where do EU countries get leeway to disagree?

Re: well

[andrewducker]

The same place the states get to disagree when a federal law is passed.

Well, it's not quite as tight as that - there's all sorts of things that countries get a veto on, but it's fairly rare to see it used.

Re: well

[missedith01.livejournal.com]

Recognising the marriage doesn't necessarily mean that the same tax and misc other benefits will be extended to gay couples. It depends on what the EU defines as "recognition".

[wolflady26.livejournal.com]

I wish that would work between America and the EU. I'm not even gay, and my marriage hasn't been recognized, a quarter of a year later. Grrr.

[thadrin.livejournal.com]

I'm FAIRLY sure that there's an official partnership deal in Sweden...not CERTAIN...but anyhoo...

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

All three Scandinavian countries recognise some form of civil recognition of same-sex partnerships. It's not marriage, though, and although all three (Norway, Sweden, Denmark) recognise each other's civil registered partnerships, no other country does.

The advance on making it marriage (as the Netherlands has) is that legal marriage is customarily recognised across all borders.