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CNN Live At Daybreak

Gay Couples in Germany Celebrate New Law

Aired August 01, 2001 - 08:23   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: News overseas: Gay couples in Germany are celebrating a new law that gives them almost the same rights as married couples. It's something that lawmakers in the United States have been struggling with, even as it becomes more common in Europe.

CNN's Bettina Luscher joins us by phone now from Berlin, Germany, for more on this.

Bettina, explain this a little bit further, what kind of rights do gay couples have this morning in Germany that they didn't have before?

BETTINA LUSCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They can now go to town (AUDIO GAP)

MCEDWARDS: I'm sorry, I'm not hearing Bettina. Can we get her back or do we have to move on here? I'm sorry, we did lose our technical connection to Bettina Luscher. I'm so sorry about that, but we will try to get her back and try to get her back. Actually, I think we've got her back right now.

Bettina, if you can hear me, go ahead and give us the explanation to this.

LUSCHER: Yes, we'll try it again. It's like a good marriage, we're going to try it one more time, Colleen.

Basically what the big difference is compared to a real full- fledged married, this is something like a marriage light. You have some of the rights that married couples have but not all of them. For example, same sex couples who have registered under this life partnership law, they cannot adopt children. The Germans are much stricter there than, for example, you're used to in the United States. What they can do is they can carry the same name, they can -- they will have the same inheritance rights and they are considered real relatives, which is, of course, for example, important in case one of the two partners gets ill.

And today, when we watched the scene at this town hall here in Berlin, you know the old saying about you may kiss the bride? Well today, it was you may kiss the bride and, yes, the bride can kiss the other bride because two lesbian women were the first ones here in Berlin to sign up for this so-called life partnership. They are 36 years old and they've been together for some six years and they say it's very exciting. They say it's a huge step for human rights and equal rights. And to be the first couple in Berlin was a great honor for them.

Of course Germany is not the first country to take this step. Other countries like Denmark, France, Sweden, Iceland and the Netherlands have also gone already into this direction -- Colleen.

MCEDWARDS: What -- Bettina, what were the public issues, though, that prevented Germany from going that one step further? I mean it sounds like it's almost in name only, calling it life partnership and not marriage, but what were the issues that caused the most controversy?

LUSCHER: I think the biggest step, the biggest difference that was simply a change in government. That you had a government here from Social Democrats and the Green much more liberal then, of course, the previous government under Helmut Kohl and they pushed it through parliament. And some of the more difficult things are still being left aside. Also, you have to remember that not all of Germany went through this law today.

For example, in conservative-ruled Bavaria, they are still holding out. They are -- they are hoping that there will be a decision by the Constitutional Court -- the Supreme Court of Germany that might overturn this.

I think of the headache that some people have about this law is does it mean it's the same as a family -- as a conventional heterosexual marriage and do we put these people -- these gay couples -- under same steps? And of course what the gay people are saying is, listen, we are not endangering your status as a heterosexual couple, as a heterosexual family, as a full-fledged married couple. We just want to have similar rights; we want to make commitments to our partners.

MCEDWARDS: Understood. CNN's Bettina Luscher for us in Berlin, thanks very much.

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