AUSTRALIA TO BAN RECOGNITION OF FOREIGN GAY MARRIAGES
The government of Australian Prime Minister John Howard plans to insert the words 'man' and 'woman' into the Marriage Act to keep from having to recognize the marriages of same-sex couples who get married abroad.
Three Australian same-sex couples who married in Canada have filed with the Family Court for recognition of their marriages.
'I realize in public life what you do sometimes offends some people,' Howard said. 'It's not designed to do that. But I equally don't apologize for putting to the law the simple proposition that a marriage is a union between a man and a woman, hopefully for life. That doesn't in any way prevent people having same-sex relationships. It doesn't express a view on whether they should have same-sex relationships.'
The legislation, to be introduced in Parliament by Attorney General Philip Ruddock, also will prohibit gays from adopting children from overseas. At the same time, it will expand gay rights by allowing a same-sex partner to inherit his or her partner's retirement pension without paying the 30 percent tax that presently applies to any beneficiary other than a spouse, de facto spouse or child.
'The Howard government is clearly using homophobia to divert attention of the Australian public from more serious issues that should be concerning the government,' said Somali Cerise, spokesperson for the GLBT lobby group Equal Rights Network. 'Howard is using equality as a political football to create a crisis where one does not exist.'
The group welcomed the proposed changes to superannuation (pension) legislation, calling them 'long overdue.'
'It is a case of give with one hand and take away with the other,' said ERN's Matthew Loader. 'The fact that they have suddenly decided to act upon superannuation now, just before a federal election, seems opportunistic. There has been ... legislation in parliament supported by Labor, Democrats and the Greens since 1998 on this issue and the Howard government has refused to act.'
Leading activist Rodney Croome, of the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group, said the government may have bundled superannuation reform with the antigay measures to increase the likelihood the latter will pass.
'The fact that the government has had many opportunities to support this reform since 1996 and has knocked it back every time strongly suggests that its current superannuation reform proposal is about sweetening a legislative agenda which is otherwise bitterly sour with prejudice,' he said.
Same-sex marriage is allowed in Belgium, the Netherlands, the U.S. state of Massachusetts, and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. Only Canada has no residency requirements for marriage.
FRENCH MAYOR ST ANDS FIRM ON
GAY MARRIAGE
The mayor of a suburb of Bordeaux, France, is refusing to back down on his promise to perform the marriage of a same-sex couple on June 5. Bégles Mayor Noël Mamére maintains there is nothing to prohibit the marriage and that gays should have full equal rights.
'France is a hypocritical country,' he told the International Herald Tribune. 'For many, the validity of marriage is procreation. It's an extremely archaic vision in my opinion, an idea encased in glass. The Americans are much more advanced in the fight against discrimination despite their puritanical and their slightly Protestant bent.'
Justice Minister Dominique Perben has said French law does prohibit marriage between people of the same gender and that the wedding will be null and void.
French gays have had access to civil unions, called Civil Solidarity Pacts, since 1999, but the unions do not carry all the rights of matrimony.
Mamére also is a member of France's National Assembly and vice president of the Urban Community of Bordeaux.
