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Belgium widens gay nuptial net
07/02/2004 16:19 - (SA)
Brussels - Belgium has widened the scope of its same-sex marriage laws to include foreigners, as long as one of the future partners is Belgian or resident in the country, a justice ministry directive said Friday.
The Belgian parliament adopted the original law involving Belgian gays in January 2003, making Belgium the second country to adopt legislation authorising gay marriages after The Netherlands.
The new disposition will have priority over any national law forbidding same-sex marriage "as long as one of the future partners has Belgian nationality or normally resides in Belgium."
Belgian Justice Minister Laurette Onkelinx said Belgian law should take preference in cases where only one of the two people has Belgian nationality, because "banning marriages between persons of the same sex is discriminatory."
Gay couples in Belgium have mostly the same rights as heterosexual couples, apart from matters related to parentage and adoption: in a lesbian couple the biological mother is considered the child's lone parent, while gay couples cannot adopt a child.
There were 139 gay weddings in Belgium between June and November 2003.
- AFP
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