Germany's
lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, has voted overwhelmingly in favor of
tax equality for same-sex unions. A ruling by the country's top court in favor
of gay couples had forced the parliamentary vote.
The
legislation, proposed by the center-right coalition government, was able to
pass only with the support of the opposition late on Thursday. At least 15
members of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union
(CDU) voted against tax equality for gay couples.
"I
wish that my colleagues would have voted in lock step for the draft
legislation," Stefan Kaufmann, a homosexual member of the CDU, told the
news agency AFP. Kaufmann said he was "irritated" by the votes of
some of his party colleagues.
Both the
center-left Social Democrats and Greens had presented their own draft
proposals, which would have made homosexual partnerships fully equal with
heterosexual marriages. But their initiatives ultimately did not find the
requisite support in the Bundestag.
The leader
of the Greens parliamentary group, Volker Beck, ridiculed the CDU and its
Bavarian counterpart - the Christian Social Union (CSU) - for not supporting
full equality for homosexual couples.
"We
are in the 21st century, even if you have not noticed it," Beck said.
Retroactive
law
The
Bundestag vote allows Germany's 34,000 same-sex unions to have the same tax
benefits as heterosexual marriages. The legislation is also retroactive, paying
out tax relief to same-sex couples from August 1, 2001 until the present at an
estimated cost of 150 million euros ($195 million).
Although
the CDU has been traditionally opposed to granting gay and straight couples the
same rights, a May 7 ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe
forced the issue. The court ruled that it was unconstitutional to deny tax
equality for same-sex unions.
The
legislation still has to pass Germany's upper house of parliament, the
Bundesrat. Approval there is considered all but assured.
slk/ipj (AFP, dpa, KNA)
Related Articles:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.