Agence France-Presse More Dutch Gay Men Tie the Knot
July 25, 2001
Agence France-Presse

THE HAGUE -- In the first month after the Netherlands made it possible for same-sex couples to get married a total of 386 such unions were celebrated, with male couples outnumbering female, figures from the central statistics office (CBS) showed Wednesday.

It said that the number of men marrying each other was one and a half times greater than the number of lesbian marriages in the same period.

That would correspond to some 232 male couples against around 154 female ones.

In 2000, the Dutch government passed legislation giving gay and lesbian marriages complete parity of rights with non-gay ones.

The bill allows same-sex marriages to take place in town halls, and couples thus married to adopt Dutch children. They are also able to divorce through the courts.

Some 80 percent of gay couples who walked down the aisle following the adoption of the new law had already registered their union under a 1998 law.

A survey carried out by Leiden University when the legislation was introduced found that over 60 percent of same-sex couples who had registered their unions would like to get married.

Researchers estimate that by April next year some 10,000 gay couples could be married.

The gay community in the Netherlands consists of some 400,000 people.

Austrian Call to Follow German Marriage Move
August 2, 2001
Agence France-Presse

VIENNA -- Austria should follow Germany and allow legal recognition of the partnerships of same-sex couples, said the opposition Social Democrats (SP) Wednesday.

"It is time to look social reality in the eye and legally recognize homosexual partnerships," said SP federal manager Andrea Kuntzl.

She invited the other Austrian parties to discuss steps towards this end with the Social Democrats in the autumn.

Vienna activist Christian Hoegl said that legally recognized partnerships were all the more necessary now, as in the case of many gay couples, one partner was Austrian and the other German.

In Germany, as the new law went into force Wednesday, many couples turned up at registry offices to formalize their partnerships.

The new law gives the couples more security in a number of areas such as inheritance and possession of property.