Post by buzz on Jun 8, 2006 19:56:35 GMT -5
SAME-SEX UNION LAW IN CANBERRA MAY BE OVERTURNED
John Howard nd The federal liberal government plans to overturn a new law in Australian Capital Territory that recognizes and provides legal safeguards for gay and lesbian couples
ACT, which includes the national capital Canberra, last month became Australia's first state or territory to legally recognize gay and lesbian relationships. The new law established a domestic relationship -- separate to marriage -- under which same-sex couples are given the same rights as heterosexual partnerships.
No couples have taken advantage of the new law because the territory has not yet established a register of celebrants to whom the couples must give notice of their union.
Prime Minister John Howard's Cabinet announced Tuesday it would use its power over territories to quash the new law in August. Howard's conservative government amended federal marriage laws in 2004 to ensure that only men and women can marry and to head off possible legal challenges from gays and lesbians.
While declining to detail the reasoning behind the federal government's move to cancel the ACT law, Ruddock told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio Wednesday that it could be salvaged if the territory dropped some of the ceremonial trappings and rights the new law guarantees to gay and lesbian couples.
"If you look at the way in which it's been organized, with civil celebrants and a form of ceremony, essentially what they want to do is characterize it as marriage when in fact it's not," Ruddock said.
ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell branded the federal stance homophobic and discriminatory.
"We are not saying a civil union is the same as a marriage," Corbell told ABC radio.
"What we are saying is that same-sex relationships should be treated under the law the same way as married relationships and de facto heterosexual relationships," he said. "To say anything else is discriminatory
WHAT A BUNCH OF BIGOTS THEY ARE.
John Howard nd The federal liberal government plans to overturn a new law in Australian Capital Territory that recognizes and provides legal safeguards for gay and lesbian couples
ACT, which includes the national capital Canberra, last month became Australia's first state or territory to legally recognize gay and lesbian relationships. The new law established a domestic relationship -- separate to marriage -- under which same-sex couples are given the same rights as heterosexual partnerships.
No couples have taken advantage of the new law because the territory has not yet established a register of celebrants to whom the couples must give notice of their union.
Prime Minister John Howard's Cabinet announced Tuesday it would use its power over territories to quash the new law in August. Howard's conservative government amended federal marriage laws in 2004 to ensure that only men and women can marry and to head off possible legal challenges from gays and lesbians.
While declining to detail the reasoning behind the federal government's move to cancel the ACT law, Ruddock told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio Wednesday that it could be salvaged if the territory dropped some of the ceremonial trappings and rights the new law guarantees to gay and lesbian couples.
"If you look at the way in which it's been organized, with civil celebrants and a form of ceremony, essentially what they want to do is characterize it as marriage when in fact it's not," Ruddock said.
ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell branded the federal stance homophobic and discriminatory.
"We are not saying a civil union is the same as a marriage," Corbell told ABC radio.
"What we are saying is that same-sex relationships should be treated under the law the same way as married relationships and de facto heterosexual relationships," he said. "To say anything else is discriminatory
WHAT A BUNCH OF BIGOTS THEY ARE.
