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Germany passes law for Same-Sex-Marriage

pswii60

Member
Great news, but they're very LTTP. SS marriage has been legal since 2014 in the UK, with the vote passing in 2013. But better late than never.

Disgusting that Merkel voted no.
 

Nokterian

Member
About fucking time it happend..unbelievable how far behind germany is with this.

Congrats germany! And merkel voted no? I am not surprised.
 
We've finally arrived in the 21st century!

Great news, but they're very LTTP. SS marriage has been legal since 2014 in the UK, with the vote passing in 2013. But better late than never.

Disgusting that Merkel voted no.

Her explanation was, that they should be awarded equal rights (adoption etc [still not possibile in Germany]), but doesn't want it to be called marriage.
 
Very disappointing she voted no. It almost feels like it conflicts with her character, but I don't really know a lot about German politics.
 

Ladekabel

Member
Great news, but they're very LTTP. SS marriage has been legal since 2014 in the UK, with the vote passing in 2013. But better late than never.

Disgusting that Merkel voted no.

It was planned since 2003 but always failed at the resistance of the conservative CDU/CSU
 

ck8215

Member
I feel Merkel voting no is not about that she doesn't want the law to pass but about standing with the CSU and trying to not loose conservative voters.
She is basically at "fault" this vote happend in one week and I believe she just wants to show CSU I'm still on your side.
 

benjipwns

Banned
Never thought about the actual casting of vote procedure. Does a red card indicate a no vote and green card (like the guy to the right has) a yes vote? And the card is chipped/coded to the member or something? Or are the colors something else and they have separate boxes?

Reading a Bundestag fact guide on its website but my German isn't great and it doesn't seem to explain beyond saying that members have a voting card with their name.
 
Good news!

It's funny how sudden this whole thing was. One day it wasn't even really up for discussion it seems and the next day it's like "OH HEY LETS VOTE RIGHT THE FUCK NOW"
 
It doesn't. She is the sole reason why it didn't happen earlier.

Not really.
The "rot-grün" coalition in 2001 (or 2003, whenever they passed the Lebenspartnerschaft law) failed to get the real deal done back then.
That was the time when the socially liberal had the power and needed to step up, after that, socially conservative parties were in power so it took another 15 years or so.
 

Jonnax

Member
Good news!

It's funny how sudden this whole thing was. One day it wasn't even really up for discussion it seems and the next day it's like "OH HEY LETS VOTE RIGHT THE FUCK NOW"

Might be the UK election. It's showing that the youth are becoming more motivated to vote and have an active part in politics.
 

Vuze

Member
Very disappointing she voted no. It almost feels like it conflicts with her character, but I don't really know a lot about German politics.
She's just flip-flopping all the time. Now she got the marriage equality topic out of the way (rather prominent point of opposing parties' programs) but of course to "soothen" her base, she voted no. She's a joke, I don't think she's got an own agenda outside of being re-elected at this point lol.
 

KHlover

Banned
Might be the UK election. It's showing that the youth are becoming more motivated to vote and have an active part in politics.
Nah. It's every other party saying "we won't form a coalition with parties who don't have same sex marriage in their program" and Merkel wanting that topic to be over before the election.
 

Ac30

Member
She's just flip-flopping all the time. Now she got the marriage equality topic out of the way (rather prominent point of opposing parties' programs) but of course to "soothen" her base, she voted no. She's a joke, I don't think she's got an own agenda outside of being re-elected at this point lol.

She should run on "strong and stable" then!
 

Harlequin

Member
Not really.
The "rot-grün" coalition in 2001 (or 2003, whenever they passed the Lebenspartnerschaft law) failed to get the real deal done back then.
That was the time when the socially liberal had the power and needed to step up, after that, socially conservative parties were in power so it took another 15 years or so.

It was still Merkel and her government who kept it from being voted on these last four years. And she's been saying that she's "uneasy" with the idea of same-sex marriage and adoption for a long time.
 

chadskin

Member
Never thought about the actual casting of vote procedure. Does a red card indicate a no vote and green card (like the guy to the right has) a yes vote? And the card is chipped/coded to the member or something? Or are the colors something else and they have separate boxes?

Reading a Bundestag fact guide on its website but my German isn't great and it doesn't seem to explain beyond saying that members have a voting card with their name.

That's pretty much exactly right. Yes/No/Abstention cards have different colors and the bar code makes it easier to count the vote electronically.
abgeordneter.jpg
 

Wollan

Member
Woah. Didn't know Merkel was against this. Big drop in respect.
Thought her being big on science having her PHD in quantum chemistry, openness to immigration etc would naturally have her be on the reasonable side here.
 

oti

Banned
Woah. Didn't know Merkel was against this. Big drop in respect.
Thought her being big on science having her PHD in quantum chemistry, openness to immigration etc would naturally have her be on the reasonable side here.

You don't know Merkel then. Merkel is 100% reasonable when it comes to staying in power. She knew the law would get passed but she also knew angering conservative voters would be a big mistake for her and her party in the coming elections. It's Merkel. She'll compromise.

Also: This time Merkel got outplayed. She didn't want this vote right now as it makes her look bad.
 

Harlequin

Member
Christian German Union indeed.
Very happy for my gay German brethren today!

The D in CDU stands for Democratic, not for Deutsch/German, actually, but yeah. They are Germany's big conservative party and that includes (some) social issues. (Though, of course, compared to US conservatives, they're positively leftist.)
 

Ac30

Member
Woah. Didn't know Merkel was against this. Big drop in respect.
Thought her being big on science having her PHD in quantum chemistry, openness to immigration etc would naturally have her be on the reasonable side here.

I mean Frauke Petry has a PhD in Chemistry and she headed the AFD...
 

takoyaki

Member
Great that it finally happened!

Shame that Merkel was on the wrong side of history with her vote. But at least she no longer stood in the way of progress while maybe not losing as many conservatives over it in the upcoming election.

Now Germany really needs to do a LTTP: Same Sex Marriage ;)
 

Hektor

Member
Woah. Didn't know Merkel was against this. Big drop in respect.
Thought her being big on science having her PHD in quantum chemistry, openness to immigration etc would naturally have her be on the reasonable side here.

It stands to reason that she maybe only voted that to cater to a specific part of her party (CSU like Schäuble etc.) And germanies citizens knowing that her vote wouldn't make a difference (cos everybody knew this is going to pass)

But in either case, germanies most famous and supposedly one of the worlds most powerful people voting against it doesn't send good vibes definitely.

Even the US managed to openly have the president endorse LBGT under Obama.

That said, the vote passed, that's what matters the most.
 

Occam

Member
You don't know Merkel then. Merkel is 100% reasonable when it comes to staying in power. She knew the law would get passed but she also knew angering conservative voters would be a big mistake for her and her party in the coming elections. It's Merkel. She'll compromise.

Also: This time Merkel got outplayed. She didn't want this vote right now as it makes her look bad.

Correct, it was a lose-lose for her. She didn't want to anger her conservative base, but she knew it would pass either way. Very smart of her opponents to make it a public vote.
 
Her voting no makes me confident that at least this time she won't get credit for something good that other parties did. At least this time, please.
 

Meguro

Banned
Way too late but finally.
Fuck Merkel for voting no just to appeal to her base. Some things are more important than looking good to your christian voters.
 

Fliesen

Member
Great that it finally happened!

Shame that Merkel was on the wrong side of history with her vote. But at least she no longer stood in the way of progress while maybe not losing as many conservatives over it in the upcoming election.

Now Germany really needs to do a LTTP: Same Sex Marriage ;)

this is my takeaway.
It's a shame that individual people still hold certain 'principles' / 'values' (*barf*).
But there's still a huge difference between personally not thinking opening marriage to the gay community and actively standing in the way of progress by forcing your parliamentary faction to vote against it.

Yesterday, the Austrian conservative party, along with their rightwing partners-to-be decided to vote against marriage equality. (A party that 'reinvented' themselves just earlier this year and is now led by a 32(!) year old). What an utter disgrace.
 

Fritz

Member
Her "problem" is a constitutional problem. The constitution grands special protection to the marriage between man and woman. Its a design flaw like the 2nd amendment


It might even happen that a Supreme Court overrules the new law that will be drafted following this vote.

Then they would have to alter the constitution which needs a 2/3 majority iirc.
 
I'm very happy for Germany. Since Austria tends to imitate a lot of the stuff that Germany does, I hope that same-sex marriage is one of the things that we're finally going to pull through with. There's already been talks about having a vote on it coming from the Social democrats.

Yesterday, the Austrian conservative party, along with their rightwing partners-to-be decided to vote against marriage equality. (A party that 'reinvented' themselves just earlier this year and is now led by a 32(!) year old). What an utter disgrace.

Oh that happened already? Damn. Well I guess it's too short-notice for the conversatives to open up about it just yet.
 
I was a major fan of Merkel for being a capable leader in the EU and the way she handled the refugee crisis but wrt gay marriage I am basically a single issue voter that could never support someone for voting against it.

So fuck Merkel, hope she loses now.
I'm very happy for Germany. Since Austria tends to imitate a lot of the stuff that Germany does, I hope that same-sex marriage is one of the things that we're finally going to pull through with. There's already been talks about having a vote on it coming from the Social democrats.
Kurz is against it for stupid reasons. At least adoption isn't an issue here.
 

Siegcram

Member
Her voting no makes me confident that at least this time she won't get credit for something good that other parties did. At least this time, please.
Pretty much. Apparently she really painted herself in a corner, rather than shrewdly removing a campaign advantage from the SPD.
 
People criticizing merkel dont understand that she was one of the factors why this was possible. Merkel allowed the CDU congressman to vote freely which is the sole reason why this was possible. If she insisted on a partyline the vote would have been very close (in particular because some congressmen are already in their vacation and some are sick)
 

Yeah I edited my post.

Profound sadness.

Kurz is against it for stupid reasons. At least adoption isn't an issue here.

Kurz is against it because Schüssel and Pröll are against it. He, just like all the other faces the ÖVP has gone through in the past 10 years, are mere puppets made out of hot air. The "renewal" of the ÖVP's extent goes as far as installing Kurz as the leader, opening the list up to non-ÖVP candidates and using the colour turquoise instead of black.
I do find the choice of colour as a "blue light" quite amusing...
 
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