NZZ am Sonntag, wedding announcement
Same sex map Europe
Light green: Same sex marriages
Dark green: Partnerships
Grey: in consideration of amendments
On June 5, 2005 Swiss citizens voted for the new Partnership law (Partnerschaftsgesetz PartG), which makes a legal registration for homosexual couples possible and that nation wide. Of course, some of the conservative catholic cantons did not agree with the majority and voted against the amendment. It past anyway. It took Switzerland quite some time to get to the point where an actual vote was possible. Switzerland gradually worked on the acceptance and the integration of lesbians and gays which eventually lead to legal changes and the 58% yes vote to same sex partnerships. It is true that they have come a long way and that the battle towards equality continues, but the wide acceptance throughout the social stratum creates a solid basis.
Integration is important, Gay art needs to be available for heterosexuals,
integration means, no hidden gay cinemas, theaters, and art shows. Lesbians and gay men do not necessarily need their own political parties but the opportunity to enter existing ones without being discriminated. In some societies the gay scene is still disconnected and hidden from society’s surface, they are forced to live underground. The scene exists but is pushed away or separated from the “norm”. And that has to change.
Dark green: Partnerships
Grey: in consideration of amendments
On June 5, 2005 Swiss citizens voted for the new Partnership law (Partnerschaftsgesetz PartG), which makes a legal registration for homosexual couples possible and that nation wide. Of course, some of the conservative catholic cantons did not agree with the majority and voted against the amendment. It past anyway. It took Switzerland quite some time to get to the point where an actual vote was possible. Switzerland gradually worked on the acceptance and the integration of lesbians and gays which eventually lead to legal changes and the 58% yes vote to same sex partnerships. It is true that they have come a long way and that the battle towards equality continues, but the wide acceptance throughout the social stratum creates a solid basis.
Integration is important, Gay art needs to be available for heterosexuals,
Book: Rechte der Lesben und Schwulen in der Schweiz
Lesbians and gay men and their parents, even in Switzerland, still have to put up with discrimination, although it has become more indirect but still vicious. Statistics show that suicide rates among same sex oriented boys is higher than for heterosexual boys (Switzerland: http://www.los.ch/). Even in a country where there are laws against discrimination and there is a general acceptance towards homosexuals there still seems to be enough pressure that leads to such desperate acts as suicide. So, let’s think about the people who live in countries where there are no same sex partnerships or marriages, no laws against discrimination and society’s willingness towards acceptance that makes integration possible.
By Swan.
3 comments:
I hope there will be the law in Thailand in order to give homosexuals more chances to express their real feelings. Some people in Thailand can’t accept GLBT people because they think that those people behave unnaturally. Many GLBT people have to hide their realities because they want to be accepted by people around them. It is very bad, I think, because they can’t be happy as they should be because people discriminate against them.
This is another discriminate in Thailand. I used to read about a couple of lesbians who are now 80 years old. They said they had to hide the being lesbian from others’ eyes. They had to tell everyone that they are just the best friends. They both agree that GLBT nowadays are much more luckier than them.
There is no law for the same sex marriage in Thailand, yet some GLBT couples get married with the original Thai ceremony of marriage. I mean there’s a dowry, a parade of presents for the bride and a pouring holy water from parents of both sides. If there's the law for same sev marriage in Thailand, I think it would change Thai's perception towards GBLT that we are all equal.
Many people don’t agree on ‘homosexual marriage" and they argued that homosexuals’ marriage is abnormal since marriage is an institution between a man and a woman.
But the world we live in today is very different from many hundred years ago and our institutions must be changed, so gay and lesbian marriage would be another development in its changing definition.
I think marriage is a basic human right and an individual personal choice, the government or anybody should not interfere with same-gender couples who choose to marry and share an equal in the rights, responsibilities, and commitment of civil marriage.
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