Same-sex marriage in the Netherlands

Same-sex marriage has been legal in the Netherlands since 1 April 2001. The Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

was the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage.

Legislative action

As early as the mid-eighties, a group of gay rights activists, headed by Henk Krol

Henk Krol

Henk Krol is a Dutch journalist, editor-in-chief of the gay magazine Gay Krant . He is a former spokesman for the Liberal Party faction in the Estates-General of the Netherlands ....

– the editor-in-chief of the Gay Krant

Gay Krant

Gay Krant is a Dutch publication written for the gay community. It voted Cristiano Ronaldo as the sexiest player in the 2004 European Championship and in the 2006 FIFA World Cup....

– asked the government to allow same sex couples to marry. Parliament decided in 1995 to create a special commission, which was to investigate the possibility of same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....

s. At that moment, the Christian Democrats (Christian Democratic Appeal

Christian Democratic Appeal

The Christian Democratic Appeal is a centre-right Dutch Christian democratic political party. It suffered severe losses in the 2010 elections and fell from the first to the fourth place...

) were not part of the ruling coalition

Coalition government

A coalition government is a cabinet of a parliamentary government in which several political parties cooperate. The usual reason given for this arrangement is that no party on its own can achieve a majority in the parliament...

for the first time since the introduction of full democracy. The special commission finished its work in 1997 and concluded that civil marriage

Civil marriage

Civil marriage is marriage performed by a government official and not a religious organization.-History:Every country maintaining a population registry of its residents keeps track of marital status, and most countries believe that it is their responsibility to register married couples. Most...

should be extended to include same-sex couples. After the election of 1998, the government promised to tackle the issue. In September 2000 the final legislation draft was debated in the Dutch Parliament

States-General of the Netherlands

The States-General of the Netherlands is the bicameral legislature of the Netherlands, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The parliament meets in at the Binnenhof in The Hague. The archaic Dutch word "staten" originally related to the feudal classes in which medieval...

.

The marriage bill passed the House of Representatives by 109 votes to 33. The Senate approved the bill on 19 December 2000. Only the Christian parties, which held 26 of the 75 seats at the time, voted against the bill. Though, after 2006, the Christian Democratic Appeal Party became the largest party in the coalition, it did not indicate any intention to repeal the law.

The main article in the Act changed article 1:30 in the marriage law

Burgerlijk Wetboek

The Burgerlijk Wetboek is the civil code of the Netherlands. Early permutations were largely based on the Napoleonic code. The Dutch Civil Code was given substantive reform in 1992. The Code deals with the rights of individuals , legal entities , the rights of assets and succession...

to read as follows:

Een huwelijk kan worden aangegaan door twee personen van verschillend of van gelijk geslacht.

The law came into effect on 1 April 2001, and on that day four same-sex couples were married by the Mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen

Job Cohen

Marius Job Cohen is a Dutch social democratic politician and former legal scholar of Jewish background. Since 2010 he has been the leader of the Labour Party and since June 17, 2010 he has been a member of the House of Representatives, where he also is the Parliamentary group leader of the Labour...

, who became a registrar specifically to officiate at the weddings. A few months earlier, Mayor Cohen had been junior Minister of Justice of the Netherlands and was responsible for putting the new marriage and adoption laws through parliament.

Requirements and rights

Dutch law requires either partner must have Dutch

Netherlands

nationality

Dutch nationality law

Dutch nationality law is based primarily on the principle of Jus sanguinis and is governed by the Kingdom act regarding Dutch citizenship . Thus citizenship is conferred primarily by birth to a Dutch parent, irrespective of place of birth...

or to reside in the Netherlands. The marriageable age

Marriageable age

Marriageable age is the age at which a person is allowed to marry, either as of right or subject to parental or other forms of consent. The age and other requirements vary between countries, but generally it is set at 18, although most jurisdictions allow marriage at slightly younger ages with...

in the Netherlands is 18, or below 18 with parental consent. The law is only valid in the European territory of the Netherlands and does not apply to the constituent countries

Constituent country

Constituent country is a phrase sometimes used in contexts in which a country makes up a part of a larger entity. The term constituent country does not have any defined legal meaning, and is used simply to refer to a country which is a part Constituent country is a phrase sometimes used in contexts...

of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The single legal difference between same-sex marriages and heterosexual marriages is parent

Parent

A parent is a caretaker of the offspring in their own species. In humans, a parent is of a child . Children can have one or more parents, but they must have two biological parents. Biological parents consist of the male who sired the child and the female who gave birth to the child...

age by both partners is not automatic. The legal mother of a child is its biological mother (article 1:198 of the civil law

Burgerlijk Wetboek

) and the father is (in principle) the man she is married to when the child is born. Moreover, the father must be a man (article 1:199). The other partner may thus become a legal mother only through adoption. Only in the case when a biological father does not become a parent (e.g. in case of sperm donation

Sperm donation

Sperm donation is the provision by a man, , of his sperm, with the intention that it be used to impregnate a woman who is not usually the man's sexual partner, in order to produce a child....

), both female spouses obtain parental authority automatically (article 1:253sa).

Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten

In Aruba

Aruba

Aruba is a 33 km-long island of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean Sea, located 27 km north of the coast of Venezuela and 130 km east of Guajira Peninsula...

, Curaçao

Curaçao

Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...

and Sint Maarten, separate civil code

Civil code

A civil code is a systematic collection of laws designed to comprehensively deal with the core areas of private law. A jurisdiction that has a civil code generally also has a code of civil procedure...

s exist in which rules for marriage are laid down and it is not possible to perform a same-sex marriage in these constituent countries.

All territories of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Kingdom of the Netherlands

The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a sovereign state and constitutional monarchy with territory in Western Europe and in the Caribbean. The four parts of the Kingdom—Aruba, Curaçao, the Netherlands, and Sint Maarten—are referred to as "countries", and participate on a basis of equality...

in the Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

recognise same-sex marriages performed in the European territory of the Netherlands

Netherlands

as a result of a Dutch Supreme Court

Hoge Raad der Nederlanden

The Supreme Court of the Netherlands is the highest court of the Netherlands, Curaçao, Sint Maarten and Aruba. The Court was established on 1 October 1838 and sits in The Hague, Netherlands....

ruling. The Supreme Court ruled that that all vital records recorded in the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Kingdom of the Netherlands

were valid throughout the Netherlands; this was based on its interpretation of the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands

The Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands describes the political relationship between the four different countries which form the Kingdom of the Netherlands: Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten in the Caribbean and the Netherlands in Europe...

. However, subsequent rulings have established that same-sex marriages are not automatically entitled to the same privileges (e.g. social security

Social security

Social security is primarily a social insurance program providing social protection or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others. Social security may refer to:...

) extended to married couples of the opposite sex.

Caribbean Netherlands

On Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, marriage is presently restricted to heterosexual couples, but a law enabling also same-sex couples to marry has already been passed and is planned to come into effect by 10 October 2012. The change was proposed by Dutch House of Representatives rather than the government itself (which preferred to negotiate the change with the islands first). The issue is very controversial on the islands, both because many oppose the principle of the law and because of the perceived "neocolonialism

Neocolonialism

Neocolonialism is the practice of using capitalism, globalization, and cultural forces to control a country in lieu of direct military or political control...

" of the Netherlands imposing such a law on its overseas municipalities.

Same-sex marriages and registered partnership performed elsewhere, have a legal status on the islands. To ensure same-sex couples enjoy similar rights, the provisions of the Dutch civil code (rather than the civil code for the Caribbean Netherlands) applied for marriages performed outside the islands from 1 January 2011.

Opposition

After the Dutch parliament legalized same-sex marriage the Protestant Church in the Netherlands

Protestant Church in the Netherlands

The Protestant Church in the Netherlands is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in the Netherlands. With 2,000 congregations and a membership of some 1.8 million , it is the second largest church in the Netherlands after the Roman Catholic Church.It was founded 1 May 2004 as a merger of...

permitted individual congregations

Parish

A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

to decide whether or not to bless such relationships as a union of love and faith before God

God the Father

God the Father is a gendered title given to God in many monotheistic religions, particularly patriarchal, Abrahamic ones. In Judaism, God is called Father because he is the creator, life-giver, law-giver, and protector...

, and in practice many churches now conduct such ceremonies.

Local governments are obliged to perform civil same-sex marriages, and they can require their personnel to conduct marriages for same-sex couples; however, if their existing contract did not state this requirement, they cannot be fired over a refusal.

Some local councils choose not to require registrars who object to same-sex marriage to perform ceremonies. Though this is usually a decision made by Christian political parties, it can be said that it would not benefit a same-sex couple if the official performing the ceremony was unhappy doing so, potentially ruining the occasion.

In 2007, controversy arose when the new government

Government

Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...

(Fourth Balkenende cabinet

Fourth Balkenende cabinet

The fourth Balkenende cabinet or Balkenende IV is the previous Dutch coalition cabinet formed by the political parties Christian Democratic Appeal , Labour Party , and ChristianUnion . The cabinet succeeded the third Balkenende cabinet following the 2006 election, and was installed by Queen Beatrix...

) announced in its policy statement

Government policy statement

A government policy statement is a declaration of a government's political activities, plans and intentions relating to a concrete cause or, at the assumption of office, an entire legislative session. In certain countries they are announced by the head of government or a minister of the parliament...

that officials who object to same-sex marriage on principle may refuse to marry such couples. Some Socialist and Liberal dominated municipal councils opposed this policy, claiming that the job of a registrar is to marry all couples, regardless of gender. The opposition parties stated that if a registrar opposed same-sex marriages, he or she should not hold that post.
The municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

of Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

announced that they would not comply with this policy, and that registrars there would still be obliged to marry same-sex couples. In reaction to this, many other municipalities announced their rejection of this proposal as well. The Balkenende government claimed that this issue lay solely within the remit of the central government. In practice, municipalities decide whether or not to hire registrars who object to marrying same-sex couples.

Statistics

According to provisional figures from Statistics Netherlands

Statistics Netherlands

Statistics Netherlands, founded in 1899, is a Dutch governmental institution that gathers statistical information about the Netherlands. In Dutch it is known as the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, often abbreviated to CBS. It is a department of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and is...

, for the first six months, same-sex marriages made up 3.6% of the total number of marriages: a peak of around 6% in the first month followed by around 3% in the remaining months: about 2,100 men and 1,700 women in total. By June 2004, more than 6,000 same-sex marriages had been performed in the Netherlands.

In March 2006, Statistics Netherlands released estimates on the number of same-sex marriages performed in each year: 2,500 in 2001, 1,800 in 2002, 1,200 in 2004, and 1,100 in 2005.

Registered partnership

On 1 January 1998, registered partnership

Civil union

A civil union, also referred to as a civil partnership, is a legally recognized form of partnership similar to marriage. Beginning with Denmark in 1989, civil unions under one name or another have been established by law in many developed countries in order to provide same-sex couples rights,...

s were introduced in Dutch law. The partnerships were meant for same-sex couples as an alternative to marriage

Marriage

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

, though they can also be entered into by opposite-sex couples, and in fact about one third of the registered partnerships between 1998 and 2001 were of opposite-sex couples. In law, registered partnerships and marriage convey the same rights and duties, especially after some laws were changed to remedy inequalities with respect to inheritance and some other issues.

Legislative action

Requirements and rights

Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten

Caribbean Netherlands

Opposition

Statistics

Registered partnership

See also