Jay Bell Books

More Married Than Before

Although I always say I’m married to Andreas, what we have isn’t quite that, at least by definition of the law. Civil Unions in Germany have always been close enough for me. When Andreas and I were married, we understood that we had every right as heterosexual couples, except for two. We don’t get the same tax breaks, and we aren’t allowed to adopt. Compared to the wasteland of civil rights I had just come from, this sounded exceedingly generous, and was easy to accept. Occasionally though, when tax season came around or when Andreas would dream of children, it would bug us.

I was very happy to learn that our “civil partnership” has recently been given an upgrade. The federal courts in Germany did some musing, and decided that it was wrong that homosexual couples are granted equal rights. As of October 2009, we now get those juicy tax breaks and have our pick of orphans. The only thing denied to us now, is one small technical term. With every right granted, it seems only a matter of time before the last bit of nonsense is done away with, and we are officially allowed to use that controversial little word “marriage.” I’ll be happy when it finally does happen, but it won’t mean as much as the recent gain in equal rights. I’ve been married to Andreas since the day we decided to make it so, and there isn’t a power in the world can grant or take that commitment away from us.

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