Equal Rights for Equal Couples

Even after the ground-breaking ruling in the United States, the fight for gay civil partnerships does not end here.

What makes an 83-year-old woman cry with joy and relief? When I read it in the newspaper at the beginning of the week, I could not imagine, for whatever reason, that an 83-year-old woman would cry. Probably because I think that one would have left behind all fighting by the age of 83 and one would be lucky not to have to fight any more. That fighting would be done by the next generation.

But Edie Windsor fought and a large part of American society is very thankful for it. She did it because anger at injustice knows no age. She brought an action against the state in which she lived because it had not accepted her same-sex marriage. When she was 80 years old, she filed a lawsuit against the law that banned the acceptance of her marriage. She had spent 44 years with her great love, Thea Spyer.

I have never quite understood the arguments against equal treatment for homosexuals. Only in parts could I understand it: because our parents’ generation was brought up differently, or at least that was one reason. Basically the arguments were never cogent.

With interest, the members of the Bavarian Parliament recently followed the debate of a gay Christian Social Union member with Prime Minister Horst Seehofer. Seehofer would not let this gay man tell him what marriage is and who is allowed to celebrate marriage. Splendid.

If it were up to me, the term gay marriage would already be redundant in the year 2013. The reason is that only one marriage exists and not 100 different ones. Anyone should be allowed to celebrate marriage.

It could have not been expressed more concisely than by former Hamburg Mayor Ole von Beust: “Homosexuality is a perfectly normal sexual behavior,” he said; “At the most it only deviates from the norm.”

Von Beust married his lifelong partner Lukas five weeks ago; they are now husband and husband, he confirmed on Tuesday. In Germany it has been possible to register a gay civil partnership since the 1st of August, 2001. Recently, even the Bundestag legislated for same-sex couples tax splitting, which is more than encouraging.

Nevertheless, the struggle for gay couples continues: An equality in adoption law is still pending. Also, here I hear the arguments of the opponents with great interest. Who are you to say that children of same-sex couples grow up unhappier than others? When children can feel their parents’ love, the foundation is laid for them to become intelligent and confident creatures. That is the only truth that matters to me – regardless of whether the parents are two men, two women or a woman and a man.

When Thea Spyer, wife of Edie Windsor, died four years ago, Windsor had to pay a $363,053 inheritance tax because the state refused to accept their marriage from 2007 in Canada. The Defense of Marriage Act, that law from 1996, refused homosexual equality at the federal level.

On Tuesday, the authorities ended the crusade of the 83-year-old widow, which was about more than just money: In a historic decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, they declared the law from 1996 to be unconstitutional. “If I had to survive Thea, what a glorious way to do it,” Windsor said after the verdict. Even U.S. President Barack Obama called Windsor to let her know his joy over the verdict. A president to whom marriage is sacred – German President Joachim Gauck could learn a lesson from that.

Much more important in this context: Injustice, as women already know, often starts with money. Windsor took this as an opportunity to fight. All women who are still paid less than male colleagues should follow this example.