Germany allows SSM

P_1

Bit of a good breaking news story this morning. Germany had an emergency parliamentary session to vote to legislate for Same Sex Marriage. It passed with ease.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/world/europe/germany-gay-marriage.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur

Banbha32

So so happy with this!!! Ive been to Germany a lot over the years and its a great country for LGBT people and has been for years. Its still surprising to me that a country so liberal took so long but thats the governments fault (a heavy devoutly Christian and Conservative party in power similar to much of Central and Eastern Europe).

For a long time i admire Angela Merkel except for this one stance. However, this week she finally gave way and even though there has been such a delay i am happy with her willing to allow a vote even knowing her own views would lose. That is admirable and rare in a leader, they usually go with their own personal opinion over anyone else as they have the power to do so and can keep blocking forever (DUPs Arlene Foster for example). There was no way it wouldnt pass in the German Parliament and definitely would have passed in a referendum (83% support amongst the German public one of the highest in the world). That being said it was necessary given the upcoming elections on September 24th and the other 3 parties had already outlined they will not prop up her government without a committment on SSM.

A great step forward as at the end of the day Germany is the most important country in Europe and the EU and a beacon of hope to the rest. They have recently delayed similar measures in Switzerland (last month) and Austria (only yesterday!) but hopefully they will come in line within the next two years. Lithuania only rejected SSM last week, Polands Prime Minister has completely ruled it out, Slovakia tried to make it even less likely in a referendum that showed the public were against SSM and Romania is currently trying to ban SSM happening. Hungary is also a no no as well as Serbia, Montenegro, Moldova etc etc etc

Malta is the only other one on the horizon to pass gay marriage due by the end of July (and hopefully Chile by the end of the year) After that who knows how long Eastern Europe will take but it only takes one or two to get the ball rolling (likely Czech Republic and Estonia as they already have civil unions)

Happy days though we live in hope

Annasopra

Political opportunism from Merkel really. She only did this because a) the german public is in favour b) to shut it down from becoming an election issue that could hurt her.

mjdh1957

Great news. It does seem strange that it didn't happen sooner but then politics intervened. Merkel is a strange one really, but it's good that she finally gave way and allowed this to happen.

Annasopra

So much for all that ****e about Muslims invading Europe to throw gays off buildings


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/angela-merkel-chancellor-germany-same-sex-marriage-vote-lgbt-muslim-mps-berlin-bundestag-cdu-sdp-a7819391.html?cmpid=facebook-post