16 - OITM june 2001 l Good legal advice can make all the difference. V Langrock Sperry & Wool takes PRIDE in contributing to the advance in civil rights for gay and lesbian citizens, and to making our state a better place for all Vermonters. Iangrock Sperry & Wool offers the services of 22 lawyers with over 300 years combined experience in all areas of the law — including two lesbian attorneys with special expertise serving the legal needs of the g/l/b/t/q community - SUSAN MURRAY & BETH ROBINSON With offices in Middlebury and Burlington Middlebury (802) 388-6556 Burlington (802) 864-0217 smurray@langrock.com brobinson@langrocl<.com Langrock Sperry & Wool, LLP ATTORNEYS AT LAW SOCIALLY RESPONSIVE FINANCIAL SERVICES SINCE 1985 By Susan Murray & Beth Robinson In light of the rancorous debate and the efforts of some at the Vermont Statehouse to demean gay and lesbian rela- tionships by eliminating the civil union law (and thereby take away the small measure of respect g/l couples have gained with the new law), it’s hearten- ing to remember that our efforts to reach full equality in the marriage laws is inevitable. Why? Because other countries are already light years ahead of us. To our north, Canada is debating gay marriage rights. Several -European countries (including Denmark, Sweden, Iceland and France) have had partnership laws on the books for years now. And one country, the Netherlands, has finally elimi- nated all discrimination in its marriage laws, by allowing gay and lesbian couples to enter into civil marriages, just, like opposite sex couples. Just three years ago, in 1998, the Netherlands had been one of a handful of north- ern European countries which had already passed a so-called “registered partnership” law, allowing gay and lesbian cou- ples to register their relation- ships and receive some but not all of the benefits of civil mar- riage. In other words, the Netherlands had a law that was similar to Vermont’s civil union law, only heterosexual couples could enter into civil marriage, but g/l couples could enter into one of these regis- tered partnerships. It was a sit- uation which one Dutch legal expert has referred to as “mar- riage apartheid.” Legal Briefs Remarkably, in just three years the Dutch Parliament came to realize that it was dis- criminatory and nonsensical to have two parallel systems, in which civil marriage was limit- ed only to opposite-sex cou- ples. It therefore overwhelm- ingly passed a law which declares, simply, that “a mar- riage can be contracted by two persons of different sex or of the same sex.” The Dutch leg- islature’s progressive and his- toric vote stands in start con- trast to the hysterical behavior of Nancy Sheltra’s “sex pack” and the other anti-civil legisla- tors in the Vermont legislature. It also points up an interesting difference between the Netherlands’ journey toward equality in the marriage laws and Vermont’s as-yet incom- plete - journey: while the Vermont legislature took up the issue only after the Supreme Court’s Baker decision, and passed the civil union law by the slimmest of margins and only after rancorous debate, the Dutch elected legislature (its Parliament), not its courts, have taken the lead in this civil rights struggle. There are two differences between a Dutch marriage of an opposite-sex couple and a same-sex couple. I First, the presumption that both parents in a marriage are the biological parents of a child born during that marriage will not apply for same sex marriages, since it is (as yet) biologically impossible for two women or two men to be the biological parents of the same child. Therefore, gay and lesbian married couples in the ii” ‘Not affiliated with Choice Financial Services 802-453-6677 fax 802-453-6685 dlescoe@together.net PO Box 42 42 Trillium Lane Starksboro, VT 05487 Investment Adviser Representative of, and securities offered through Tower Square Securities, Inc.‘ Member NASD/SIPC Tax specialists serving individuals and small businesses Elizabeth C. Campbell, CPA, PC Certified Public Accountants 15 East Washington Street, Rutland 05701 802-773-4030 / liz@rallyCPA.com Netherlands who have a child through the use of fertility clin- ics or surrogacy will have to go through the adoption process in order for both of them to be considered legal parents. (By the way, g/l couples in Vermont who have civil unions should also obtain adoption to confirm that both parents have legal parental rights to children born to either parent during the civil union.) Second, g/l married couples in the Netherlands will not be able to adopt internationally. Since most Dutch adoptions are international, the Parliament was apparently afraid that other countries will opt not to place their children with Dutch couples because of prejudice against g/l couples, thereby eliminating adoption possibilities for all Dutch cou- ples. Gay and lesbian Dutch couples will, however, be allowed to adopt Dutch'chil- dren, and will be allowed to adopt each-other’s children. Finally, rules on residency and citizenship apply: while a Dutch citizen can marry a non- Dutch citizen (and that foreign- er does not even have to live in the Netherlands), non—Dutch couples cannot get married in the Netherlands unless one of them is a resident of the Netherlands (in other words, an American lesbian who lives and works in Amsterdam can legally marry her same-sex partner in the Netherlands, but two Americans who live in the U.S. cannot fly to the Netherlands to get married). In passing this historic law, the Dutch Parliament .was aware of the fact it that this was a “first” in the world, and that gay and lesbian Dutch mar- riagesl may not be recognized in other parts of the world, at least at first. But that didn’t stop the government from doing what was right. Thus, at midnight on April 1, 2001, the mayor of Amsterdam presided over a joyous, emotional cere- mony at City Hall: seven same-sex couples became the first couples in the world to become legally married. Susan .Murray and Beth Robinson are attorneys at Langrock Sperry & Wool in Middiebury, Vermont. If you ’d like to see us cover a particular topic, please fc_e/ free to write OIT M or Call us at 388-6356.