Even in some northern Europe countries, efforts to redefine marriage can't get out of committee:
The Finnish parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee on Wednesday voted narrowly to reject a bill to legalise equal marriage.
The bill, proposed by the National Coalition Party (NCP) minister Alexander Stubb proposed the bill, which would have made marriage gender-neutral, therefore allowing same-sex couples to marry.
It was rejected 9 votes to 8, and so it will not go before the full legislature for consideration.
The bill would have made regulations relating to marriage equal for all, irrespective of the gender of the partners. In Finland, gay and lesbian couples can currently register their partnerships, but do not automatically take each others’ surnames, or adopt children, reports YLE. (PinkNews)
14 Comments
Intersting, and Finland is one of the more socially progressive and secularized countries in Western Europe.
Which parent(s) should be taken from this child to satisfy the asinine desires of pseudo-marriage advocates?
a. mother
b. father
c. both
d. neither
Discuss.
Barb, here's some food for thought, if you're capable of chewing: same-sex parenting is already legal in all 50 US states. Still, not all same-sex married couples will raise children and many of those that do raise the children discarded by straight couples who can't be bothered with them.
Are you against same-sex marriage or same-sex parenting? One is legal everywhere and the other is being embraced on a state-by-state basis, until the US Supreme Court decides otherwise.
Finland: It was already so: "The bill would have made regulations relating to marriage equal for all" - marriage, under the condition of opposite sex was already equal. Even after being defeated, equality is still considered inequality. How little the media have thought about it. That's why I'm Little Man.
Roberto: Obviously, you are not capable of chewing through the data.
Re comment nr. 3.
To answer the question about parenting, we must ask what is a parent? Is it someone who is the biological father or mother of a child? Or is it an adoptive parent? Or is it a “social” parent? Same sex parenting in the first sense is biologically impossible with regards to both halves of the couple. It arises for a same sex couple only when there is a third party, who is then excluded from the marriage and generally from the life of the child, cutting the child off from either a father or a mother. A typical situation is a woman who divorces her husband (or who is divorced by her husband) and who seeks out a lesbian partner rather than remarrying another man. Adoptive parenting is variously regulated by the states. Social parenting is not prohibited anywhere, but what does it mean legally? Is a non-biological non-adoptive parent to be legally deemed a parent? And if so, why?
Publius: Huh?
Great post, Publius.
I guess Robert isn't capable of chewing!
Sure. A child can live in a household with a same-sex couple, but it is meaningless in a legal sense. The child only has one legally recognized parent in the dyad (the natural parent). The other member of the couple has no parental rights unless they adopt the child. Second parent adoption is not legal in all fifty states, fyi Robert.
Whoever does NOM's photo research should be fired. A dated picture of a child with a mullet? Oh well, you'll all be fired within a year, when the funding from everyone but Sean Fieler and the catholic church dries up.
Publius and Ash,
Marriage and Parenting, while culturally related, are each governed by a separate set of legal norms. That's why Robert was perplexed by your post, as it conflates two different legal institutions and treats them as if they're one and the same.
Robert is perplexed to start with, and always. My source? Nomblog comments.
Will Fisher, can you mind-read Robert?
What are the legal norms for marriage?
What are the legal norms for adoption?
I ask these two questions of Robert, not you Will, as a simple test of your ability to read Robert's thoughts or at least to interpret his articulate "Huh?" comment. Please correct his answers if you discover his comments are in error.
Thanks.
The only Nordic country with some morals and values!
Perhaps Sweden, Norway and Denmark should listen to their neighbour