Schroder government proposal of gay marriage draws fire

As one and a half million young people prepare to shed their inhibitions in Berlin's Love Parade today, Germany's politicians are drawing battle lines over the love that dares not speak its name.

The centre-left government of the Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, yesterday introduced a parliamentary bill that would allow gay couples to register their partnerships and extend to them the same tax, inheritance and immigration rights as married couples.

But the conservative opposition warned that it would block the legislation when it reaches the upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, on the grounds that it would undermine the traditional family.

The opposition spokesman on legal issues, Mr Norbert Geis, said that the experience of other countries suggested that only a few thousand lesbians and gays would bother to register their partnerships and that many would split up soon afterwards.

"For the first time in the history of the Federal Republic, the special position of marriage has been called into question," he said.

Germany's constitution recognises the special status of marriage but opinion polls show that most Germans believe that gay couples should enjoy the same rights as married people.

Under the new law, same-sex partners would be obliged to provide for one another financially and would enjoy most of the entitlements of married couples apart from the right to adopt children. Foreign partners would be given residence rights in Germany and couples could refuse to testify against one another in court.

The Justice Minister, Ms Herta DaublerGmelin, said that the legislation would not only end discrimination against gays but would strengthen partnership within society. Mr Volker Beck, one of Germany's few openly gay politicians, described the bill as an essential step towards extending justice to all members of society.

Before the debate began, the Christian Democrat leader, Dr Angela Merkel, wrote to Germany's church leaders asking them to join a campaign against extending partnership rights to gay couples. In a letter to the chairman of the Catholic Bishops' Conference and the leader of the Evangelical Church, she promised to defend the traditional family from what she described as an assault.

"The CDU remains the party of marriage and the family. We reject putting same-sex partnerships on the same legal footing as marriage," she wrote.

Germany's churches are usually timid about wading into debates over legislation. But leaders of both main churches appear to be determined to take a stand against gay partnerships.