Where Europe stands on gay marriage and civil unns | Pew Rearch Center

Contents:

• WHERE EUROPE STANDS ON GAY MARRIAGE AND CIVIL UNNS
• GAY MARRIAGE TIMELE

WHERE EUROPE STANDS ON GAY MARRIAGE AND CIVIL UNNS

“I believe that if a uple love each other and want to m to a life together, they should have the optn of a civil marriage, irrpective of whether they are gay or straight, … are not prrisg gay rights, or tramplg over tradn; we are allowg a space for the two to exist si by si. The rultant Wolfenn Report published 1957 nclud that crimalisatn of homosexualy was an impgement on civil liberty and that homosexual acts between nsentg adults should not be an offence. It was not until a later that the Sexual Offenc Act 1967 crimalised homosexual activy between nsentg adults and set the age of homosexual nsent at 21, later rced to 18.

There was no statutory age of nsent for lbian sex until the Sexual Offenc Amendment Act 2000 which equalised the age of nsent for homosexual and heterosexual men and women to 16 England, Wal and Stland. More than 18 years after the Netherlands beme the world’s first untry to legalize same-sex marriage, Northern Ireland has bee the latt European jurisdictn to allow gays and lbians to marry. Reporters wrote about what Fortunato and Schwandt lled a holy unn, which was ntroversial not bee there was talk of legalizg gay marriage but bee the two men publicly ask for -- and were nied -- the blsg of the Epispal Church.

GAY MARRIAGE TIMELE

"The New York State Court of Appeals clar that a lbian or gay uple livg together for a least ten years n be nsired a fay for purpos of rent ntrol protectn, the first time a state's hight urt l that a gay uple n be lled a fay... The California Bar Associatn urg that lbian and gay marriage be legally regnized and Seattle, San Francis and other ci, 'partners' regulatns extendg certa protectns and rights to unmarried upl, straight and gay, are adopted.

"Jt as Hawaii's high urt seemed poised to allow same-sex marriag, gay activists have seen their visns of legal weddgs on the beach of Mi disappear as voters approved Constutnal Amendment 2, givg the legislature power to 'rerve marriage to oppose-sex upl. "Rabbis belongg to the biggt and most liberal branch of Judaism the Uned Stat have voted to regnise the partnerships of gay and lbian Central Conference of Amerin Rabbis, which is part of the Jewish Reform movement, has agreed to sanctn relig ceremoni for same-sex Print of the Conference, Rabbi Charl Kroloff, said that gay and lbian people served the regnn and rpect due to people created the image of God.