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Germany legalizes same-sex marriage


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2 hours ago, Jazzy Jan said:

Well done Germany !  Shocked at Angela Merkel voting against it though.  

What do you all think, that she is some kind of saint or something? Now and then she shows her true colors. I still don't like her. Kudos though for pushing the Gay Marriage vote and for welcoming refugees back in 2015. 

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So cool! Best news ever, cause Germany and France are the engine of Europe so I hope now they press all of EU to pass this legislation! Or make it an EU regulation :). But what the fuck with Merkel voting????

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1 hour ago, elijah said:

So cool! Best news ever, cause Germany and France are the engine of Europe so I hope now they press all of EU to pass this legislation! Or make it an EU regulation :). But what the fuck with Merkel voting????

Paris and Berlin r about 15 years late 2 the party, which was thrown 1st in The Hague, Brussels & Copenhagen.

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7 minutes ago, acko said:

Paris and Berlin r about 15 years late 2 the party, which was thrown 1st in The Hague, Brussels & Copenhagen.

I know, but this saying is perfect for this case: better late than never. Now there should be a pressure on Eastern Europe to do this! Wasn't Italy recently pressed to legalize same sex marriage recently by an European court on human rights decision? I think I ve read it somewhere... No, its on unions, not marriage:

Yes, here it is: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/07/gay-rights-italy-europe/399572/

An Ambiguous Victory for Gay Rights in Europe

The European Court of Human Rights says Italy must recognize same-sex unions. Will the ruling reverberate across the continent?

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The scene in front of Rome's Colosseum at the city's gay-pride parade in 2013Max Rossi / Reuters

L’amore vince. Sort of. This week, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled in the case of Oliari and Others v. Italy that Italy is obligated to legally recognize and protect same-sex unions. The judgment is an exciting development for LGBT activists in Europe, where more than a dozen nations have legalized gay marriage—representing roughly two-thirds of the countries that have done so worldwide. But the significance of this latest ruling isn’t entirely clear, mainly because of the unique nature of the court itself.

When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage in June, there was no real confusion regarding the court’s authority or the scope of its jurisdiction (enforcement of the ruling has been another matter entirely). But the situation is murkier with the ECtHR, an international court independent of any sovereign entity and with jurisdiction over 47 member states and 800 million people.

The court was established in 1959 in order to enforce compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights. Based in Strasbourg, France, the court accepts cases from both individuals and states. It only takes on a case after all possible legal recourse has been exhausted in national courts, and rulings are binding on the state against which the case has been brought. Enforcement of rulings is handled by the Committee of Ministers, comprised of the foreign ministers of the 47 member states.

Oliari and Others v. Italy wasn’t the ECtHR’s first foray into matters of sexual orientation. In fact, the court has been something of a judicial vanguard in the field. Whereas the U.S. Supreme Court decriminalized homosexual activity in 2003 with Lawrence v. Texas, the ECtHR came to the same conclusion back in 1981 with Dudgeon v. the United Kingdom. In 2013, the court ruledthat states that offered heterosexual couples legal recognition of unions beyond marriage were obligated to offer the same options to homosexual couples. The court has also been a pioneer on transgender rights, requiring the French government in 1992 to respect and recognize a citizen’s changed gender; in May, the court ruled that transgender people are protected against discrimination on the grounds of gender identity.

In the Oliari case, three Italian gay couples complained that they were unable to enter into any legally recognized or protected unions despite being in stable, committed relationships. The court found that Italy’s refusal to offer any legal framework for the recognition or protection of these unions violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which holds, “Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home, and his correspondence.” Although the article is geared toward preventing state interference in the lives of individuals, the court found that “it may also impose on a State certain positive obligations to ensure effective respect for the rights protected by Article 8”—namely, legal recognition and protection of same-sex unions.

Critically, the judgment does not call for marriage equality, as in the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling in the United States. It does not explicitly oblige any state other than Italy to recognize same-sex unions. It does, however, place indirect pressure on other European countries to do so, according to Dinah Shelton, a law professor at George Washington University. “Because the court is issuing an interpretation of a right within the Convention to which [the states] are bound,” Shelton said, “they’re on notice that if they were similarly sued the result would likewise be the same.” With this in mind, Shelton explained, states that belong to the ECtHR may pass legislation to comply with the ruling so as to preempt future lawsuits.

Still, some members of the ECtHR will likely ignore the ruling entirely. That includes Russia, whose government has pursued virulently anti-gay policies. Russia and the court already have a complicated relationship: Russia had the highest number of pending cases before the ECtHR in 2013, accounts for a plurality of cases requiring special attention from the Committee of Ministers, and takes the longest time on average—9.7 years in 2014—to fully comply with court rulings. The relationship isn’t entirely dysfunctional, though. Russia paid out nearly €2 billion in financial compensation in 2014 as a result of court rulings, and the judicial body’s decisions have influenced Russian jurisprudence even at the level of the Russian Supreme Court.

The reality is that if the ECtHR were, in the future, to order Russia to recognize same-sex unions, it would have no surefire way of enforcing that judgment. The Committee of Ministers cannot apply sanctions or similar penalties to ensure compliance; it can only apply continuous diplomatic pressure on a given member. Diplomatic pressure can be successful—the Committee of Ministers was able to pressure Turkey into complying with a case related to its 1974 invasion of Cyprus by linking the case to Turkey’s possible admission to the European Union. But pressure can only go so far, and short of expelling a state from the court, there is little the ECtHR can do to require a nation to adopt measures that are anathema to it. Thus, it would be difficult to force Russia, Ukraine, or other serial non-compliers to follow the court’s lead. (Italy also has a poor reputation for compliance, but that’s due more to its dysfunctional judiciary than to ideological opposition to the court’s rulings, according to Shelton.)

If nothing else, though, the court sent a message this week to its 47 members, 23 of which do not officially acknowledge same-sex partnerships: The legal recognition of gay unions is a human right, not a privilege.

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U r absolutely right, and I'm still pissed at my other retarded country: Italy.

But we've had civil unions since the late 90's and gay marriage 4 a good 15 years now,
u get kinda jaded & think, 'what? only just now!?'...people r so used 2 it, the debate is 20 years old.
It's kinda like someone telling me in 2017, 'Hey did ya hear, Finland just gave women the vote..' :lol:

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11 minutes ago, acko said:

U r absolutely right, and I'm still pissed at my other retarded country: Italy.

But we've had civil unions since the late 90's and gay marriage 4 a good 15 years now,
u get kinda jaded & think, 'what? only just now!?'...people r so used 2 it, the debate is 20 years old.
It's kinda like someone telling me in 2017, 'Hey did ya hear, Finland just gave women the vote..' :lol:

Yeah, u are right. But really when we look at the world there are hardly a lot of countries recognizing it. Same-sex marriage became legal (nationwide or in some parts) in ArgentinaBelgiumBrazilCanadaColombiaDenmarkFinlandFranceIcelandIrelandLuxembourgMexicothe NetherlandsNew ZealandNorwayPortugalSouth AfricaSpainSweden, the United Kingdom  the United States, and Uruguay. So hardly a lot of countries recognize it. And there are death penalties for homosexuality in some horrible countries and grotesque ppl that rule African countries say terrible things about gays officially to this day!!! Even Russia has regressed tremendously on this matter. So globaly the situation is worsening on my view. And I m really happy with the German news.

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Make no mistake about Merkel. She is basically the German Frank Underwood with her scheming. She is not as charismatic and she most likely will not push anyone before a subway train but she certainly has no problem to throw people under the bus if she has to. Just ask the men, former politicians that were reaching for her power as head of her party or even the chancellorship. Some are no longer in politics, some were send to Brussels, one was even promoted to German President. Truth to be told they deserved it. Anyway, the way this vote went down is just another political move. In reality she was really opportunistic about it. On one hand she made the whole thing possible, on the other, with her vote she stuck to the conservative beliefs of many of her party members and her voters. Keep in mind that there are General Elections in September. Are those her own current beliefs? Who knows. She did not say that. She explained her vote referring to the German constitution. What she did not say is that the German constitution, article 6, just says that marriage and family are especially protected by the state. With no word it says, that marriage consists of a man and a woman. It was actually the constitutional court that  somehow always defined marriage that way. On the other hand it was the very same court that ruled every time in favor of the LGBTQ community in recent years when a case came up in regards to tax laws, heritage etc. The only thing left for equality was basically adoption. And I'm convinced that a ruling on this matter would have been in favor of the LGTBQ community as well. But luckily, this is no longer necessary. Is Merkel forward thinking on social issues? Absolutely not. But I also think she does not really care about those issues personally. She cares more about stability and economic growth. She is not looking for confrontation. That's why it was a shock (a good one) when she made the statement about Europe better taking care of itself and choosing its allies more carefully (well, she basically said Trump to f*ck off) considering she is always so diplomatic. And compared to other domestic politicians and foreign leaders she can be considered a liberal.

 

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On 01/07/2017 at 4:10 AM, acko said:

U r absolutely right, and I'm still pissed at my other retarded country: Italy.

But we've had civil unions since the late 90's and gay marriage 4 a good 15 years now,
u get kinda jaded & think, 'what? only just now!?'...people r so used 2 it, the debate is 20 years old.
It's kinda like someone telling me in 2017, 'Hey did ya hear, Finland just gave women the vote..' :lol:

Same with Australia.  It is embarrassing that we are so behind with recognising gay marriage.  Especially since we were one of the first countries in the world to give woman the vote and are so proud of that.   The conservative factions in government now have too much power.  

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On Friday, June 30, 2017 at 8:10 PM, acko said:

U r absoluthey right, and I'm still pissed at my other retard ed country: Italy.

But we've had civil unions since the late 90's and gay marriage 4 a good 15 years now,
u get kinda jaded & think, 'what? only just now!?'...people r so used 2 it, the debate is 20 years old.
It's kinda like someone telling me in 2017, 'Hey did ya hear, Finland just gave women the vote..' :lol:

Blame the catholic politicians (in the left too) who still lick the Vatican's ass and support the so called "traditional family" despite being divorced and living an "immoral " private life. The hypocrisy.......

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On 2017-07-01 at 11:53 AM, Raider of the lost Ark said:

Make no mistake about Merkel. She is basically the German Frank Underwood with her scheming. She is not as charismatic and she most likely will not push anyone before a subway train but she certainly has no problem to throw people under the bus if she has to. Just ask the men, former politicians that were reaching for her power as head of her party or even the chancellorship. Some are no longer in politics, some were send to Brussels, one was even promoted to German President. Truth to be told they deserved it. Anyway, the way this vote went down is just another political move. In reality she was really opportunistic about it. On one hand she made the whole thing possible, on the other, with her vote she stuck to the conservative beliefs of many of her party members and her voters. Keep in mind that there are General Elections in September. Are those her own current beliefs? Who knows. She did not say that. She explained her vote referring to the German constitution. What she did not say is that the German constitution, article 6, just says that marriage and family are especially protected by the state. With no word it says, that marriage consists of a man and a woman. It was actually the constitutional court that  somehow always defined marriage that way. On the other hand it was the very same court that ruled every time in favor of the LGBTQ community in recent years when a case came up in regards to tax laws, heritage etc. The only thing left for equality was basically adoption. And I'm convinced that a ruling on this matter would have been in favor of the LGTBQ community as well. But luckily, this is no longer necessary. Is Merkel forward thinking on social issues? Absolutely not. But I also think she does not really care about those issues personally. She cares more about stability and economic growth. She is not looking for confrontation. That's why it was a shock (a good one) when she made the statement about Europe better taking care of itself and choosing its allies more carefully (well, she basically said Trump to f*ck off) considering she is always so diplomatic. And compared to other domestic politicians and foreign leaders she can be considered a liberal.

 

Very interesting.

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