Small Change : How the Road to Same-Sex Marriage Got Paved in the Netherlands

THE N E T H E R L A N D S APPEARS to be the first country m the world where a legislative proposal to open up marnage to same-sex couples has become law and come into force. This landmark bill was mtroduced by the Government on 8 July 1999, passed by the Lower House on 12 September 2000, passed by the Upper House on 19 Decembei 2000, and signed mto law by Queen Beatrix on 21 December 2000. The law came mto force on l April 2001. In every other country where same-sex marnage has become a topic for mtense social, pohtical and legal debate, such legislation has yet to be adopted (as of August 2001). Test cases attemptmg to acquire full marnage nghts for same-sex couples were more or less unsuccessful in Germany, Spam, New Zealand, Hawaii, Vermont, and indeed in the Netherlands itself. Legislation mtroducing a registrauon System more or less similar to marnage, but not called marnage, has been enacted in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Greenland, Iceland and the Netherlands, as well as m Vermont. A greater number of jurisdictions has been providing some legal recognition of same-sex de facto cohabitation, and/or mtroducing a registration scheme with far less legal consequences than marnage. But so far the law of most jurisdictions in the world does not recogmse the relationships of partners of the same sex at all. This begs the question Why aie the Dutch so fast In this chapter, I will try to answer that question, by descnbmg the legal steps that paved the way for this legislation. I will present the Dutch road towards the openmg up of marnage as an example of the working of what I call "the law of small change". By domg this, I will imphcitly suggest that, and how, and when, same-sex marnage can be achieved in other countries