GERMANY APPROVES SAME- SEX-MARRIAGES
Lawmakers’ ‘ conscience’ vote could lead way for other nations and open adoption rights
Ulli Köppe didn’t realize he would change history with a simple question this week to German Chancellor Angela Merkel: Why can’t he marry the man he loves?
Her answer at a public forum surprised everyone: He can.
Merkel’s about- face after years of opposing same- sex marriage freed members of her conservative Christian Democrats party to vote their “conscience” instead of toeing the party’s hard- line stance on the issue.
“It’s a personal matter,” she said.
Though Merkel voted against the measure, the German parliament voted Friday to legalize gay marriage, joining many other Western European nations and the United States, where same- sex couples enjoy marital recognition and rights.
The move could spur other European countries to follow suit.
“We’ve been together almost 12 years — I love him, and we’ve often discussed the topic of marriage,” Köppe, 28, told
“I want to be able to go somewhere and say, ‘ I’m Ulli, and this is my husband.’ ” Ulli Köppe, 28
USA TODAY. “I want to be able to go somewhere and say, ‘ I’m Ulli, and this is my husband.’ ”
The gay marriage bill, a last- minute addition in parliament’s last session before the summer break, was backed by almost every party in the lower house.
Germany recognizes civil partnerships for same- sex couples, which guarantee most of the benefits married heterosexual couples get.
Though same- sex couples have the right to inherit and adopt a partner’s children, they have not been able to adopt outright or receive the tax benefits afforded married couples.
“This is really a decision about whether gays can adopt. Everything else is already settled,” said Jörg Borowsky, 51, a retiree from Berlin who was in a civil partnership.
“I still think that we should have the same standards,” he said. “Even though I was in a partnership and everything was virtually the same on paper, it still wasn’t considered marriage.”
Visitors from neighboring European countries expressed hope that Germany’s action could ripple through other parts of the continent that have yet to legalize same- sex marriage.
“I’m extremely excited for the vote,” said Yves Wullichleger, 36, a caregiver from Switzerland visiting Berlin. He wants to be able to marry his partner of four years in his native Switzerland, where the rules on same- sex unions are almost identical to those in Germany.
“Sometimes I feel discriminated against, purely based on my partnership status,” he said.
Merkel’s Christian Democrats and their Bavarian allies, the Christian Social Union ( CSU), have long opposed gay marriage. Their platform centers on “family values,” and same- sex marriage was a red line for the party’s conservative wing.
Resistance persists despite Merkel’s change of view.
“Germany has other problems,” Peter Ramsauer, a member of the CSU, told the German daily Rheinische Post. “The ( party) leadership should be wary of destroying the last of the conservative values.”
Germany will hold national elections in September, and legalizing same- sex marriage could benefit Merkel and those running for parliament.
Two- thirds of Germans support marriage for all, according to a YouGov poll in May.
Merkel said her resistance to samesex unions had been focused on the adoption of children.
But she was inspired by a lesbian couple who encouraged her to visit them and their eight foster children so she could see how well they were doing.
“I had a life- changing experience in my constituency,” Merkel told Monday’s forum, held by Brigitte, the largest women’s magazine in Germany.
“When the state gives a same- sex couple children to look after, then I can no longer argue on the basis of child welfare.”
The couple, Gundula and Christine Zilm, said they were amazed they had influenced Merkel.
“We’re happy to know that this decision might be because of us. It’s great to know she remembered us,” Christine Zilm told the Ostsee- Zeitung daily.
She said the couple will marry after the law takes effect, and “Angela Merkel will get an invitation to the wedding.”
“We’re happy to know that this decision might be because of us. It’s great to know she remembered us.”
Christine Zilm on an encounter with German Chancellor Angela Merkel