Germany Does the Right Thing
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This Pride Month Germany has done something brilliant. In a snap vote that followed forty minutes of heated and emotional debate, German MPs voted to legalise same-sex marriage.
The vote came out as 393 votes to 226 with four MPs abstaining from making a choice and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel voting against the motion. In an emotional response, Green Party MPs threw confetti in the German parliament and it was a particular victory for politician Volker Beck, a prominent and tireless gay rights campaigner, who left his 23-year law-maker career on Thursday.
In 2001 same-sex couples in Germany were granted the right to a civil union giving them similar status to couples who are married. It is often regarded by gay rights campaigners as the ‘first step’ towards legalising same-sex marriage and they were introduced in the UK in 2005, seven years before same-sex couples could legally marry.
Chancellor Merkel, leader of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, explained her decision to vote against legalising same-sex marriage: “For me, marriage as defined by law is marriage between a man and a woman.”
Despite this, many MPs voted freely with their conscience and granted equal rights for same-sex couples in Germany once and for all. They will be officially allowed to marry and adopt children towards the end of this year once the vote has been signed into law by the president.