Dutch Gays Vs Vatican

Doctrine Meets Practice Dutch take on Vatican over gay marriages
By Frida Ghitis

from Chicago Tribune sept 21, 2003

At the stroke of midnight, on April 1, 2001, an extraordinary ceremony unfolded at City Hall in Amsterdam. Inside the massive red brick building adjoining the city's grand opera hall, a leading Dutch politician performed official marriage ceremonies for four gay couples. The weddings, conducted by Mayor Job Cohen, represented the first fully government-sanctioned same-sex marriages in the world. They were not registered partnerships, civil unions or any other political concoction cooked up to resemble a normal marriage. These marriages were 100 percent identical to the ones joining married heterosexual couples in the Netherlands.

The weddings did not cause much of a social or political commotion in the Netherlands. That, however, is not what happens in most countries when gay marriage comes up for debate. Since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Texas anti-sodomy law this summer, moves to legalize gay unions on all continents have gathered steam. The Vatican has made it its mission to stop gay marriage. Activists in the Netherlands now say they will help gay groups in other countries achieve what they did. A few weeks after the Supreme Court ruling, the Vatican issued a call for Catholics around the world to stand up against the evils of ungodly and unnatural homosexual unions.

According to the Vatican's 12-page directive, even supporting gay marriage is "gravely immoral." Not long after that, the main gay organization in the Netherlands announced the publication of a booklet designed to help activists legalize their relationships by studying the Dutch experience. Hans van Velde, a principal author of the 60-page guide, says requests for copies have poured in from all corners of the world. Already the publishers, the weekly Gay Krant and the Dutch Association for the Integration of Homosexuality, have shipped copies to Brazil, Argentina, Suriname, Romania and many other countries.

In this battle, spearheaded by the Netherlands on one side and the Vatican on the other, the Vatican has already scored important victories. When Pope John Paul II declared it the duty of Catholics to fight gay marriage, the Congress of Colombia was already debating legislation to grant partnership rights to same-sex couples. Prominent politicians, including several former presidents, had expressed support for the bill. But Colombia is a devoutly Catholic country, and the legislation was quickly shelved after the word came out of Rome. Activists say the Vatican's push killed the bill.

In Poland, the pope's birthplace and another very Catholic country, activists believed the time was not yet right to fight for gay marriage rights. But, after hearing that authorities refused to allow a gay man to see his dying partner in the hospital, Sen. Maria Szyszkowska introduced a civil unions bill. With the pope's pronouncement, the bill faces an uphill battle.

The Vatican's involvement has infuriated many activists, especially in light of the church's recent sexual abuse scandals. In Argentina, where a version of legalized same-sex union is in place, writer Eduardo Galeano wondered how, exactly, supposedly chaste priests are suddenly experts in sex. In his native Uruguay, he reports, the archbishop proclaimed homosexuality a "contagious disease." Galeano points to the horrors of the Inquisition, when homosexuals were burned alive and worse on instructions of the church. The Vatican, he says, should be begging for forgiveness, rather than continuing to spray its venom.

To those worried about the collapse of society should gay marriage become a reality, gays and their supporters in the Netherlands say not to worry. Since gay marriage became legal, the Netherlands remains standing.

Heterosexuality, they say, does not appear to have been endangered. Dutch activists underscore that what they fought for was civil matrimony. They say the rules of religious marriage are a matter for each church to decide.
When it comes to legalizing civil marriages, they feel a responsibility to share the secrets of their success. The main gay umbrella organization, which is also the oldest gay group in Europe, helped start the International Gay and Lesbian Organization, which is promoting equality for gays.

Cohen, who as justice minister became the principal sponsor of legislation in the Dutch parliament, acknowledged that initially he did not see the need for same-sex marriage. Cohen, who is openly straight, eventually came to champion the cause when he realized that the issue was, in fact, equality. The same point is made by Jose Smits, one of many openly gay members of parliament. She says the problem is really one of discrimination - which politicians of all stripes generally oppose.

The Dutch publication offers encouragement to gay groups even in the face of defeat. Arriving at gay marriage required a long and arduous 16-year trek through the jungles of public opinion, parliamentary politics, the Dutch courts and, surprisingly, a reluctant gay community. When Henk Krol, editor of the Gay Krant, first brought up the matter with gay groups, they did not support him. At one point, the president of the gay association, Anja van Kooten Niekerk, agreed with politicians who opposed gay marriage, saying it was "sad" that gays were demanding marriage rights. "It actually annoys me," she said. Legal experts convinced skeptics when they explained that marriage is the only contract that imposes duties on third parties. When two people marry, not only do they agree to responsibilities toward each other, but they also involve other entities dealing with pension funds, investments, inheritance, hospital visitation rights, government matters and other practical issues. Krol said he opposed "gay marriage." That's right. He considered gay marriage discriminatory.

The idea was that marriage itself, just as it was, should be open to all consenting adult couples. To get there, organizers had to study existing laws. Then they tested their claims in court, where they lost. The Dutch high court said same-sex marriage would require new legislation. They then set out to enlist allies in parliament and design a course of legal action. They gradually persuaded municipalities to allow registries of committed gay couples, and enlisted the agreement of corporations, such as the Dutch airline KLM, to recognize the registries for the purpose of employee benefits. After 1998, gay couples were allowed to make their relationships official through a national system of registered partnerships that assigned rights and responsibilities almost identical to those of marriage.

At last, in 2001, the law was changed so gays had identical marriage rights as straight couples. Since the Netherlands pioneered equality in marriage for same-sex couples, the trend has spread. In January 2003, Belgium abolished all its laws that stood in the way of marriage between gay couples. (Belgium, too, is still standing.) In Canada, after a provincial high court said it was unconstitutional not to allow gays to marry, the country looks set to join the Netherlands and Belgium. In many European countries, the shock value of gay life seems to be fading. The European Parliament just voted to recommend that countries allow gays to marry and adopt children. The current mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, "outed" himself during the election campaign and was elected anyway.

In the United States, the Supreme Court unleashed a frenzy of activity in conservative circles to stop gay marriage. But many other countries are well on their way. Just as some local governments in the U.S. allow gay couples to register, domestic partnership legislation is in place in all Scandinavian countries, as well as in Spain, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Israel, South Africa and many other spots throughout the world. The Vatican may tell its followers that the trend is sordid, unnatural and against God's laws. But right now, in this faceoff between Dutch activists and the Vatican, men such as van Velde say the Vatican is bound to lose.

Legalized gay marriage is inevitable. "It's something," he said, "that you cannot stop." .

Frida Ghitis writes about world affairs. She is the author of "The End of Revolution: A Changing World in the Age of Live Television."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/search/chi-0309210071sep21,1,1255123.story