European Registered Partnerships

The United States lags a good deal behind many other countries with regard to recognizing same-sex unions. Denmark was the first country in the world to enact a registered partnership law for same-sex couples in 1989. Norway was next in 1993, and then Sweden (1995), Iceland (1996), and the Netherlands (1998). The Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Swedish partnership acts are available to same-sex couples only, while the Dutch law is available to same-sex and opposite sex couples.

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In November 2000, the German Parliament (Bundestag) authorized "Life Partnerships." This action extended to gay and lesbian couples many of the rights that heterosexual couples enjoy, including the right to the same surnames, hospital visitation rights, rights as next of kin in medical decisions, some parental rights over the other partner's children, inheritance rights regarding health insurance and pensions, and so on. Subsequently, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany has increased the rights enjoyed by same-sex couples, ruling in 2009 that registered partnerships should grant all the rights extended by marriage. A 2012 ruling extended tax exemptions to same-sex couples. Currently, registered partnerships grant virtually all the rights of marriage except the right of joint adoption.

Although some cantons had offered registered partnerships to same-sex couples since 2000, in 2005, Swiss voters were asked to decide if gay and lesbian couples should have equal legal rights as married couples.

The Swiss government and most political parties supported the measure, as did the Federation of Protestant Churches. Predictably, the Roman Catholic Church opposed it.

On June 5, 2005, Swiss voters approved, by a 58 percent majority, the national registered partnership law. It grants same-sex couples the same rights and protections as legally married couples, including next of kin status, taxation, and social security benefits.

The Swiss Registered Partnership law went into effect on January 1, 2007.

The European registered partnership acts essentially treat partners as if they were married, but with some exceptions, the most important of which being that none of them allow for joint adoption.

In 2005, Great Britain permitted same-sex couples to enter into civil partnerships that confer all the rights and responsibilities of marriage but that cannot be called marriage.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair hailed the civil partnership law as a "landmark measure" that "gives gay and lesbian couples who register their relationship the same safeguards over inheritance, insurance and employment and pension benefits as married couples. . . . No longer will same sex couples who have decided to share their lives fear that they will be denied a say over the partner's medical treatment or find themselves denied a home if their partner dies."

The French Civil Solidarity Pact

The French partnership law, which was passed in 1999 and is known as the "civil solidarity pact" or "pacte civile," is open to same-sex and opposite-sex couples and grants marriage-like rights in the areas of inheritance, housing, and social welfare. A civil solidarity pact can be terminated unilaterally by a partner, and no obligations follow on dissolution. The law does not confer inheritance rights, nor does it allow for adoption. The law is therefore more akin to a limited domestic partnership law than it is to the European registered partnership acts or to the civil union law. Still, it has proven popular with many French couples.

Dutch, Belgian, and Spanish Marriage

On April 1, 2001, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage, with the "Act on the Opening up of Marriage." The Act simply yet boldly proclaims, "A marriage can be contracted by two persons of different sex or of the same sex."

Couples in a registered partnership can convert their partnership into a marriage. But those who prefer not to can remain in their registered partnership, and couples can continue to enter registered partnerships rather than marriage if they so choose. According to the legislative findings, "the interest in registered partnerships in the Netherlands is relatively high . . . ." Interestingly, the government acknowledged that the popularity of registered partnerships "make[s] it plausible that there is a need for a marriage-like institution devoid of the symbolism attached to marriage."

Belgium became the second country in the world to recognize same-sex marriage, with a law that took effect in May 2003. However, unlike in the Netherlands, same-sex married couples in Belgium are still not allowed to adopt.