Government Presents Plans on Partnerships and Family THE HAGUE. Last week, as expected, justice parliamentary under- secretary Mrs. Schmitz in a letter to Dutch parliament presented the government's ideas on laws concerning relations- hips, adoption and family. The main point from her letter ter- med the "Nota Leefvormen" is that she does not favour the ope- ning up of marriage to gays, as was hoped by gay lobbying grou- ps. Also she does not advocate adoption by single parents of a foreign child contrary to a ruling in a Dutch court this spring allowing the adoption of a Brazilian girl by a single Dutch woman. As, in her view, adoption by single parents and gay couples would lead to negative reactions from other, especially third-world, countries where most children adopted in Holland come from, she proposes to allow adoption in these cases only when the adopted child is Dutch. But as only some 40 Dutch children are put up for adoption each year with demand much higher and Dutch law states that the natural mother has to agree with the family adopting the child it is expected that the natural mother of the child will in the vast majority of cases prefer the child to grow up with a heterosexual married couple. Organisations working in the field of adoption welcomed the restrictions fearing non-cooperation from other countries from which some 700 children are adopted in Holland each year. The N.V.I.H.-COC (Dutch gay liberation movement) in a first reacti- on termed the idea of not allowing gay couples to adopt "unac- ceptable", as the welfare of the child only depends on growing up in a stable home, whether this be provided by a single pa- rent, a gay or a heterosexual married or unmarried couple. The COC is glad that via single parent adoption an indirect possi- bility is created for gay couples to adopt. Marriage will, in the government's plan, not be opened up to gays. Although in favour of giving the same rights to registe- red gay and straight partnerships as married couples Mrs. Sch- mitz stops short of opening up marriage altogether, in this case following the official party line of the Social Democrat Party PvdA. The COC in its first reaction is pleased to see that at last the govermnent put the legal situation of gay couples on the agenda and expressed hope that unlike in the case of the law on equal treatment the proposals would quickly lead to changes in legislation. The COC is disappointed at the decision not to open up marriage to gays, thereby perpetuating a discriminatory situation and unneccesarily complicating the process of law- making. This point of view can be termed remarkable, as the COC until recently rejected the idea of partnership-registration and gay marriage, as merely an "emulation of straight marria- ge". The COC's final reaction, according to COC-lobbyists will be "highly critical" of the government's plans. A survey this spring by "De Gay Krant" showed a majority of the Dutch popu- lation favouring adoption by gay couples and making it possible for gay couples to marry instead of "registering their relati- onship" with hardly any legal consequences. Political Parties Favour Gay marriage. THE HAGUE. Contrary to the ideas expressed in Mrs. Schmitz letter to parliament regarding partnership registration it looks like a majority in Dutch parliament will be in favour of opening up marriage to gay couples, with possible restrictions only in the field of parental rights (a gay couple's child often stems from an earlier straight relationship) and adoption. Coalition part- ners VVD (Liberals) and D'66 (Social Liberals) and the opposi- tion Green party, together holding 60 seats in the 150-seat Dutch lower house, have declared themselves in favour of ope- ning up marriage to gays. Much depends on the Social Democrat PvdA (37 seats), which officially favours a seperate registration of gay and straight unmarried couples. It is quite likely however that enough La- bour-MP's will oppose the goverment plans to tip the balance in parliament, in effect telling Mrs. Schmitz, also a member of the PvdA, to do her homework again. Mrs. Schmitz, who when she was mayor of Haarlem showed herself a pragmatic and energetic politician, is said to be willing to meet the wishes of parlia- ment. The discussion in parliament will probably not to lead up to a single new bill, but will lay the foundation for a number of changes in current legislation. The Christian fundamentalist parties and the right-wing CD (together 10 seats) are expected to resist any changes in the laws, although this spring the fundamentalist SGP did put for- ward the idea of registering unmarried couples but only so that their social benefits could be cut to the level of married cou- ples, without giving them any of the rights of married couples. The idea was not taken seriously. The opposition CDA (Christian Democrats, 34 seats) is generally positive towards the governent plan, with the exception of allowing single parents to adopt. Reactions from Abroad ROME. The vatican "Osservatore Romano" sharply critisized the ideas put forward by Mrs. Schmitz, especially her idea to im- prove partner-registration for gay couples and her ideas on single-parent adoption, fearing the approval of gay lifestyles will undermine the "natural traditional family model". Lawma- kers should not merely follow social changes and Holland should not try to play a leading role in Europe in this field. Dutch Gay News is a non-commercial, volunteer activity aimed at spreading information concerning all aspects of the Dutch gay community. DGN can be reached c/o: Bert Schuur, John Franklinstraat 71-iii, NL-1056 TA Amsterdam, The Netherlands, tel/fax int-31-20-6837486, email: berts@xs4all.nl DGN digests can be found at http://www.xs4all.nl/~berts, on the Gaynet, Euroqueer and Queerplanet mailinglists, in the Queer Resources Directory, www.qrd.org, Holland section under News and on a number of gay bulletinboards. Love from Holland, Bert Schuur