It is kind of ironic to think that Germany, one of the most sexually liberal countries in the world (no country has many open sex fetish clubs and stores) is only just legalising same-sex marriage, a whole eleven years after South Africa legalised same-sex marriage. Thousands of LGBT Germans took to the streets to celebrate the landmark law and have already started to protest as the Catholic Bishops of Germany are starting to pressure the Christian Conservative lawmakers in the country to repeal the new law.
While gay marriage has always been taboo, same-sex couples have been able to enter into ‘civil unions’ recognised by law as a legally binding agreement. But same-sex couples were not allowed to adopt officially as a family, and many of the legal provisions offered to married couples were still denied to them. Many argue that Vice Chancellor Angela Merkel (the Nigerian equivalent of a president) has suddenly changed her stance on gay marriage after opposing it for the entire tenure of her ten-year chancellorship because Germany is entering into an election year, and world politics has never been as tenuous as it is now. Some say, conceding to gay marriage which has been in favour with the average German citizen is her way of hedging her bets. It is also partly a concession to the coalition of rival political parties that has allowed Merkel hold power. The other parties (the Social Democrats and The Free Democrats) said allowing the Gay Marriage law to pass was a precondition if Merkel wanted their continued support.
Now that the law has passed and has already started to receive backlash from conservative Christian Germans, we’ll have to wait and see if Merkel holds out or if she capitulates and repeals the law.
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