Same-Sex Couples Wed in Germany as Marriage Law Takes Effect
1, 2017
BERLIN — Cheers rang out in the City Hall of Berlin’s Schöneberg district on Sunday as two men, who met 38 years
ago, when the German capital was a divided city, became the country’s first same-sex couple to legally marry.
In June, Chancellor Angela Merkel surprised many in her conservative Christian Democratic Union, long opposed to changing the law despite growing indications
that society widely approved of marriage equality, by expressing openness to allowing a "vote of conscience" on the issue.
A previous German law had allowed civil unions between same-sex couples since 2001,
but those unions did not offer couples the same legal rights and were considered by many to be a second-class form of marriage.
"The transition to the term ‘marriage’ shows that the German state recognizes us as real equals." In June, Germany became the 15th European
country to grant same-sex couples the right to marry, after a swift vote in Parliament that followed a brief but emotional debate.
Previously, a same-sex partner in a civil union was allowed to adopt the biological child of his or her partner,
but a legally recognized couple was not allowed to adopt.
Mr. Holland said it was appropriate for the district to hold the first same-sex wedding in the country
because it had long been a center of gay life in the German capital.