Hungary OKs Civil Partnerships

Hungary OKs Civil Partnerships

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: December 18, 2007 - 3:00 pm ET
(Budapest) Hungary's left-of-center coalition government has passed legislation giving same-sex couples many of the rights of marriage.
The Registered Partnership Act will go into effect in January 2009. It will allow gay and lesbian couples to register their relationships and recognize partners as next of kin status.
The law will provide guarantees for joint tax filing, decision making in health care, and assure inheritance, social security and pensions rights.
It will not, however, allow same-sex couples to adopt or undergo fertility treatment, nor will it allow couples to share a common surname.
Passage of the legislation was not a surprise. The bill was introduced by the government last month over objections by the small Free Democratic Party in the coalition that it did not go far enough.
The FDP and LGBT rights groups had pressed for marriage equality.
The majority Socialist Party said that society is not yet ready for such a step and pointed to a recent court ruling that upheld the current law limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples.
Nevertheless the conservative opposition parties accused the government of of a "hidden attempt" to legalize gay marriage and of threatening families.
Hungary had been under pressure by the European Union to recognize gay and lesbian relationships.
Western European members of the EU all recognize same-sex relationships. Only the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain allow same-sex marriage. Britain has civil partnerships with all of the rights of marriage. The other states have varying forms of civil unions or domestic partner registries.
In Eastern Europe, Czech Republic and Slovenia have limited same-sex partner registries.
In July several hundred skinheads and right-wing activists threw rotten eggs and smoke bombs at people participating in a gay rights parade in Budapest.
A week earlier a member of the coalition government's cabinet came out. Gabor Szetey became the first Hungarian cabinet minister to announce he is gay.
©365Gay.com 2007