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Gays want 'real' equal rightsThursday 31 March 2011 Homosexuals in the Netherlands may be able to marry, they still do not enjoy all the rights of heterosexual couples, gay organisation COC chairman Vera Bergkamp writes in a letter to prime minister Mark Rutte and parliament and reported in the Dutch press. There are still too many councils where civil servants refuse to conduct gay marriages, according to Bergkamp. 'It's unthinkable that anyone refusing to marry Jews or people of colour would be protected,' she writes. The COC wants the government to introduce a bill that would put an end to this practice. Children The COC also wants the government to give gay couples the same rights when one of them has a child as heterosexual couples. 'At the moment, the other mother has to adopt the child, a long, emotional and expensive process,' she writes. But a heterosexual couple who have a baby using a sperm donor do not have to go through the same process, she points out. The third area where the COC wants equality is on family reunions. The government is planning to restrict reunions to couples who were married abroad. But most countries do not allow gay couples to marry, meaning they will miss out, Bergkamp says. The Netherlands legalised gay marriage on April 1, 2001. Since then, nearly 15,000 couples have married. © DutchNews.nl
So they should be banned from moving here even though they would be married if they were given the choice by their country? Just the "lucky" gays should live here, Andre? By CW | March 31, 2011 2:56 PM "Gays want 'real' equal rights" Join the club, all of us want 'real' equal rights and still none of us have it :-( By Bob | March 31, 2011 3:20 PM Although,things aren't perfect for gay people in the Netherlands,it is better than in the U.K. The European Courts,not the Labour Party,gave us the right to have a civil relationship. Some call it a Mickey Mouse marriage. Keep on fighting for complete equal treatment with legal protection. By David Morgan | March 31, 2011 7:13 PM @Andre I guess you've never heard the expression 'injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere?' By MIchael | April 1, 2011 9:06 AM @Andre Why don't you just say what you really mean? You just want 'white' gays to be allowed to come here, not brown ones. By Michael | April 1, 2011 9:08 AM @Andre: and you also want to keep quiet about gay marriages. That's also what you really mean. By Petra | April 1, 2011 5:17 PM What is a family reunion in terms of Dutch law? Also, comparing a sperm donor to a previous family is a ridiculous comparison. Straight step parents have to adopt children from previous relationships to get parental rights too. I'm very surprised they would be so diengenuous there. I agree it is wrong that civil servants are being allowed to refuse to marry gay couples though. By Seamus | April 4, 2011 1:50 PM
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I might agree with the other grievances, but not with that about foreign marriages not allowed for gays. If other countries do not allow gay marriages, it is a problem of the other countries, not a Dutch problem. It is grossly unfair to easy the rules for gays just because they are barred from marrying abroad. Not my problem, not a Netherlands problem.
By Andre L. | March 31, 2011 10:56 AM