Gay rights
July 23, 2009
When heterosexual couples in Germany tie the knot, they get married. When homosexual couples go to the justice of the peace, they enter into civil unions. What may seem to be a word game has far-reaching consequences. According to family law, only married couples are allowed to adopt children.
But recently gay rights activists - who have rallied to change the law - have been joined in their fight by German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries.
"There is no reason for the government to treat heterosexual relationships any differently from homosexual couples," Zypries said on Thursday in Berlin.
Zypries is a member of the Social Democratic Party and the issue of gay rights has been top of her agenda for months, putting her at loggerheads with her conservative Christian Democrat coalition partners.
No negative effects on "rainbow family" children
Conservatives have argued that children of homosexual couples suffer from discrimination. But a new study commissioned by the Justice Ministry seems to disprove that.
According to the study, which was conducted by a research group at the University of Bamberg, 6600 children in Germany are growing up in what are know as "rainbow families". But, contrary to popular belief, the majority of these children (53 per cent) said they were not discriminated against due to their parents' sexual orientation. The study found that the children did not miss a second-sex parent, neither mother nor father, and that same-sex parents didn't have an effect on their sexual identity.
"The children had very strong ties to their gender roles," said Marina Rupp, head of the research group that interviewed over one thousand gay parents and some 123 of their children.
Ratification of European adoption law necessary
Justice Minister Zypries says this refutes Conservative arguments in which children's well-being has been pitted against same-sex couples' right to family.
"The study proves that when children are raised in a loving family, they grow up well and secure, and gain the self-confidence they need to deal with the world at hand. The question of whether they have two male parents, two female parents or heterosexual parents is irrelevant," Zypries said in a radio interview with the German national broadcaster Deutschlandfunk.
In order for homosexuals to be able to adopt children, Germany would have to ratify the new European Adoption Agreement, which allows couples in civil unions and common law marriages to adopt.
kj/dpa/Deutschlandfunk/ifb Bamberg
Editor: Susan Houlton