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Same-sex couples across Iowa apply to marry AP Staff Writer April 27, 2009
Same-sex couples in Iowa began holding hastily planned weddings as the state became the third to allow gay unions. Within hours of a state Supreme Court ruling taking effect, several couples had married on the steps of the Polk County Administrative Building, less than a half mile from the Statehouse.
Iowa joins Massachusetts and Connecticut in legalizing same-sex marriage. Vermont gay marriage law will take effect in September. Dozens of same-sex couples filed marriage applications across Iowa on Monday, including 82 applications being filed in Polk County.
i do not agree with it but then again i am not gay..
Posts: 9776 | From: You like If only mosquitoes sucked fat instead of blood. | Registered: Jul 2007
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Good for them. If two people love each other, they should be able to get married. It has been legal in England for a little while now, and the only thing that has changed is that people are more equal.
Posts: 2573 | From: England | Registered: Jun 2008
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quote:Originally posted by weirdkitty: Good for them. If two people love each other, they should be able to get married. It has been legal in England for a little while now, and the only thing that has changed is that people are more equal.
It does not surprise me that it has been legal in England for a while. England accepted inter-racial couples decades ago, yet it still causes heads to turn in the US.
Posts: 1626 | From: whatever, wherever | Registered: Jul 2008
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Having done a lil research- we call in "civil partnership" and it has been legal since 2005. It grants couples of same sex the exact same rights as a married couple (Elton John got married the day it became legal). I think this way most people are happy. You don't have religious nuts going "marriage is only for a man and woman", and you are also not excluding loving couples for certain rights. Hopefully one day this country will allow non-married couples the same rights. My parents were together 25 years, but that means nothing here, so had to get married.
-------------------- Another one.... Posts: 2573 | From: England | Registered: Jun 2008
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Same-sex marriages have been performed and recognised in the Netherlands since 1 April 2001. Holland was the first country to do so.
Contents [hide] 1 Registered partnerships 2 Marriage legislation 2.1 Residency and other restrictions 2.2 Netherlands Antilles and Aruba 3 Opposition 4 Statistics 5 See also 6 References 7 External links
[edit] Registered partnerships On 1 January 1998, registered partnerships (Dutch: geregistreerd partnerschap) were introduced in law in the Netherlands. These were meant for same-sex couples as an alternative to marriage, though they can also be entered into by opposite-sex couples, and in fact about one third of the registered partnerships between 1998 and 2001 were of opposite-sex couples. For the law, registered partnerships and marriage convey the same rights and duties, especially after some laws were changed to remedy inequalities with respect to inheritance and some other issues.
[edit] Marriage legislation As early as the mid-eighties, a group of gay rights activists, headed by Henk Krol - then and now the editor-in-chief of the Gay Krant - asked the government to allow same sex couples to marry. Parliament decided in 1995 to create a special commission, which was to investigate the possibility of same-sex marriages. At that moment, the Christian Democrats (Christian Democratic Appeal) for the first time since the introduction of full democracy, weren't part of the ruling coalition. The special commission finished its work in 1997 and concluded that civil marriage should be opened up. After the elections of 1998, the government promised to tackle the issue. In September 2000 the final legislation draft was debated in parliament.
The marriage bill passed the House of Representatives by a majority of 109 against 33 votes. The Senate approved the bill on 19 December 2000. Only the Christian parties, which held 26 of the 75 seats at the time, voted against the bill. Though the Christian Democratic Appeal party has since 2006 been the largest party in the present coalition, there has not been any indication of an intention to repeal the law.
The main article in the Act changed article 1:30 in the marriage law to read as follows:
Een huwelijk kan worden aangegaan door twee personen van verschillend of van gelijk geslacht. (A marriage can be contracted by two people of different or the same sex) The law came into effect on 1 April 2001, and on that day four same-sex couples were married by the Mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen. He specifically became a registrar to officiate at the weddings. A few months earlier, Mayor Cohen was the junior Minister of Justice in the government and responsible for putting the new marriage and adoption laws through parliament.
[edit] Residency and other restrictions The nationality and residence rules are the same for same-sex and heterosexual marriages, and require that either partner must have Dutch nationality or reside in the country. The marriageable age in the Netherlands is 18, or below 18 with parental consent.
A same-sex marriage in the Netherlands does not guarantee that it will be recognized in another country, though a heterosexual marriage generally will be. It is likely that they may only be accepted in countries that recognize same-sex marriages or civil unions for same-sex couples.
[edit] Netherlands Antilles and Aruba The new Dutch same-sex marriage law does not apply in the Netherlands Antilles (NA) or Aruba, which do not permit such marriages.
Whether a same-sex marriage entered into in Holland would be recognized in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba was unclear for a long time. The Aruban government initially refused to recognise such marriages, but a judge of the local court ruled that such marriages should be recognised. The Aruban government appealed, and in April 2007 the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, which also has jurisdiction in the NA and Aruba, ruled that a Dutch same-sex marriage was also valid in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba.
[edit] Opposition Fundamentalist religious groups opposed the recognition of same-sex marriage in the Netherlands (see e.g. Khalil el-Moumni). After the Dutch parliament legalized same-sex marriage the Protestant Church of the Netherlands permitted individual churches to decide whether or not to bless such relationships as a union of love and faith in the face of God, and in practice many churches now conduct such ceremonies. [1]
Local governments are obliged to perform civil same-sex marriages, and they can require their personnel to marry same-sex couples; however, if their existing contract did not state this requirement, they cannot be fired over a refusal to do so.
Some local councils choose not to require registrars who object to same-sex marriage to perform ceremonies; though this is usually a decision made by Christian political parties, it can be said that it would not benefit a same-sex couple if the official performing the marriage was unhappy doing so, potentially ruining the occasion.
In 2007, controversy arose when the new government (Fourth Balkenende cabinet) announced in its government policy statement that individual officials who object to same-sex marriage on principle may refuse to marry such couples.[2] Some Socialist and Liberal dominated municipal councils opposed this policy, as they claimed it is the job of a registrar to marry all couples regardless of gender.[3] The opposition parties stated that if an official opposed this aspect of the job, he or she should not perform that job at all.[4] The municipality of Amsterdam announced that they would not comply with this policy, and that registrars there would still be obliged to marry same-sex couples.[5] In reaction to this, many other municipalities announced their rejection of this proposal as well. The Balkenende government then claimed that deciding this issue was not within the remit of municipalities but solely within that of the central government. At present, municipalities still decide for themselves if they hire registrars who object marrying same-sex couples.
[edit] Statistics Life in the Netherlands
Same-sex marriage
edit box According to provisional figures from Statistics Netherlands, for the first six months, same-sex marriages made up 3.6% of the total number of marriages: a peak of around 6% in the first month followed by around 3% in the remaining months: about 2,100 men and 1,700 women in total. By June 2004, more than 6,000 same-sex marriages had been performed in the Netherlands.[6]
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Amr and his little girly friend Vader are ‘cunts’.
* If you say you are going to clean up ES… do it. Allowing your friends to use filthy language, even when it is reported, shows how sick the moderation on ES now is. Clean out moron Amr and this forum will begin to breathe again
Posts: 17 | From: Pointing out hypocrisy and mod lies. | Registered: Apr 2009
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well since i am not gay i did not dsearch other countries to see if i could marry..lolol .anyways it will be along time before they can share benefits thru jobs here in iowa. and alot of churches refuse to marry them.
-------------------- your ass is so tight when you fart only a dog can hear it.when you queef only a cat can hear that one. Posts: 9776 | From: You like If only mosquitoes sucked fat instead of blood. | Registered: Jul 2007
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quote:Originally posted by Moronic Moderation: Amr and his little girly friend Vader are ‘cunts’.
* If you say you are going to clean up ES… do it. Allowing your friends to use filthy language, even when it is reported, shows how sick the moderation on ES now is. Clean out moron Amr and this forum will begin to breathe again
My posts were deleted when they were reported. Stop being a whiny bitch, bitch.
Posts: 6335 | From: Straight to my heart. | Registered: Sep 2007
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Stop being a whiny bitch, bitch.
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