Belgium to Follow Holland on Gay Marriage

Stefan

Found this on the RTE site today:
"The Belgian senate has approved a bill which recognises same sex marriage. The bill, which gives homosexual couples the same rights as heterosexual ones, was approved yesterday 46 votes to 15, with four abstentions.

If the bill is passed by the Lower House, Belgium will become the second country in Europe to allow gay marriage. The Netherlands accepted similar legislation in 2000.

The Belgian version would be open to people of any nationality, unlike the Dutch version.

But the new legislation would not allow gay couples to adopt children, and only the mother of a child being raised by a lesbian couple would be considered a parent.

What chance Ireland?

Gordon

I thought Britain was there, are they still in the closet for same sex marriages too?

Shinji

No - Britain as a whole still doesn't allow it. The Greater London Authority does, though.

Britain may well allow gay adoption in the near future however, which is an interesting (and imo welcome) move.

daveirl

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Shinji

Completely agree that this would be a positive step, but the same strigent financial tests etc, would still have to be applied.

Of course! And much more important than financial tests, psychological and suitability profiling - just as is applied to heterosexual couples wishing to adopt.

If only there were a way determine the suitability of biological parents as efficently as the suitability of adoptive parents is determined, eh?

daveirl

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pickarooney

You need a license for a TV, FFS!