AMERICANS MARRY IN AMSTERDAM
Two American women from Provincetown, Mass., have gotten married in Amsterdam.
It is full marriage identical in every respect to heterosexual marriage. The Netherlands is the only nation where that is possible. Foreigners, gay or straight, can marry in The Netherlands after they have lived there for four months.
Heather Wishik and Susan Donegan, both attorneys, tied the knot on July 31.
"Susan has been practicing law there for a year and a half ... and is a resident of Amsterdam," Wishik said in an Aug. 10 phone call from Provincetown, where the couple has a home. "We were the first foreigners to marry at the Zuider Amstel town hall in the southern part of Amsterdam. It seemed important to us that the Dutch law is exactly the same [ for gays and straights ] .
"It felt to us like there was a way to be ordinary and a lesbian couple in a new way," Wishik said. "It was a real extension of Dutch fairness and choice. We found it a delightful process. The town hall clerks never raised an eyebrow. They were cordial, gracious, welcoming, wonderful."
Wishik is in the process of establishing residency in The Netherlands, to join Donegan full-time, "and she gets to come in on my visa," Donegan said.
But are Wishik and Donegan now legally married at home in Massachusetts, where other Dutch marriages have been recognized?
"I have no idea," said Attorney General Tom Reilly's press secretary, Ann Donlan. "It's a legal question that would require some thought and research. I'm not prepared to answer it at this point."
Donlan called back a short time later and stated, "This is a matter for the courts."
Asked if opposite-sex married couples from The Netherlands who move to Massachusetts are legally married in Massachusetts or have
to get married again, Donlan seemed annoyed and said, "I have nothing else to say to you."
In fact, Massachusetts generally recognizes marriages from elsewhere even if those marriages could not have taken place in Massachusetts.
"Massachusetts has...or at least had...a law that forbids uncles from marrying nieces and aunts from marry nephews," said Jon Davidson, senior counsel for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. "There was a case where an aunt married her nephew in England and later moved to Massachusetts and the question was, what was Massachusetts going to do about that, since that marriage could not have been entered into in Massachusetts. The court ruled that since that marriage was not void by the laws of England, it did not feel warranted in saying the parties were not husband and wife. The general rule that Massachusetts follows is that if a marriage was legal in the place where it was entered into, Massachusetts will recognize it and treat it as a valid marriage, even if the couple couldn't have gotten married in Massachusetts."
The particular question of whether Massachusetts...or any other U.S. state ... will recognize same-sex marriages from other nations has never been answered by a court, Davidson said, "because until The Netherlands, no country allowed equal marriage rights for same-sex couples."
Gay couples gained access to ordinary marriage in The Netherlands on April 1 of this year.
Several other nations have partnership laws for gay and lesbian couples that grant up to 99 percent of the rights and obligations of marriage. Except within Scandinavia, those partnerships are not necessarily recognized across international lines.
Nations that grant many or nearly all marriage rights to same-sex couples ( but do not let them get married under the same laws as heterosexuals ) include Canada, Denmark ( and Greenland ) , France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and, in the United States, the state of Vermont.
GAY GERMANS FLOOD MARRIAGE BUREAUS
Demand for Germany's new marriage-like gay partnerships is so strong that marriage bureaus in some cities are putting heterosexual weddings on hold to accommodate the gay flood.
Two hundred gay couples appeared in the central Berlin district of Mitte in the first few days after the law took effect Aug. 1. About 40 couples are making inquiries daily in Berlin's Charlottenburg district, according to ananova.com .
Some bureaus are booked for weeks.
The partnership law grants registered couples marriage rights and obligations in areas such as inheritance, health insurance, immigration, name changes and alimony. It withholds marriage rights in the areas of adoption, taxation, pensions and social-welfare benefits.
750,000 FLOOD
MONTREAL PRIDE
MONTREAL...An estimated 750,000 people took to the streets of downtown Aug. 6 for one of the world's biggest and most spirited gay-pride parades.
Numbers in that range have been seen elsewhere only in Berlin, Cologne, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney and Toronto.
Montreal pride, known as Divers/Cite, pumps an estimated $40 million ( US$26 million ) into Quebec's economy. Corporate sponsors this year included Coke, Molson and Air Canada.
Mayor Pierre Bourque and federal health minister Allan Rock joined the festivities.
"We are seeing tolerance on a scale never imagined," said Divers/Cite communications director Elana Wright. "In Montreal, everyone gets involved ... married couples, families with children, young people and senior citizens. Montreal is open-minded and open to diversity."
Indeed, the lengthy parade route was lined with apparently straight couples of all ages and lots of children.
"Montreal is the unique-est of major cosmopolitan urban centers," gay Canadian Olympic gold medal swimmer Mark Tewksbury said in an interview. "The larger community embraces us."
The city is among four finalists bidding to host the 2006 Gay Games.
"Montreal's bid for the Gay Games has the chance to move the movement forward," Tewksbury said. "Done right, the Gay Games can show what that Olympic spirit really is."
Tewksbury will make Montreal's final presentation in Johannesburg to the Federation of Gay Games.
"The Federation of Gay Games, their mandate is participation, inclusion, acceptance," he said. "Montreal is the only city that is bidding that, should we win, will allow HIV-positive people into our country. Montreal is the right place to do it."
35 CONGRESSMEN BLAST EGYPT
Thirty-five U.S. Congressmembers wrote to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Aug. 6 denouncing the arrest of 52 men at a gay discotheque on May 11.
The men will be tried in the Emergency State Security Court for "practicing debauchery with men," "obscene behavior" and "contempt for religion." They have been jailed at Tora Prison since their arrests.
"We believe the decision of the Egyptian government to prosecute these men who have been accused of engaging in consensual sexual activity with adult persons of the same sex, and in a state security court under Egypt's emergency laws, is indefensible," the congressmembers wrote.
"As you know, Egypt is the second largest recipient of U.S. foreign assistance. We note that this assistance comes from the people of the United States, including a great number of taxpayers who are gay and lesbian, and it is approved by members of Congress, many of whom are fully supportive of the right of gay and lesbian people to be free from discrimination and violence. Given this, it is very troubling for us to hear that these Egyptian men are not only facing trial and possible jail sentences, but also may have been mistreated, beaten or tortured while in detention."
Amnesty International has said it considers the men prisoners of conscience.
The letter was signed by Congressmembers Tom Lantos, Barney Frank, Nita Lowey, Cynthia McKinney, Barbara Lee, Nancy Pelosi, John Lewis, Albert Russell Wynn, Steny Hoyer, James McGovern, Tammy Baldwin, Christopher Shays, Joseph Crowley, William Delahunt, Eliot Engel, Robert Wexler, Jim McDermott, Constance Morella, Frank Pallone Jr., Charles Gonzalez, Neil Abercrombie, Lynn Woolsey, John Larson, Jerrold Nadler, Lynn Rivers, Bernard Sanders, Brian Baird, Bob Filner, Janice Schakowsky, John Tierney, Anthony Weiner, Dennis Kucinich, George Miller, Fortney Pete Stark and Lane Evans.
