Gay marriage unstoppable in Netherlands

The House of Representatives as well as the Senate voted with a strong majority on the D66 initiative that will see no civil servants be appointed to office if they do not support all marriage, including between men and between women. P.A. Dijkstra and Gerard Schouw proposed the initiative, which received broad majority votes from fractions of VVD, PvdA, PVV, SP, GroenLinks, 50Plus, Party for Animals, The Independent Senate Fraction and CDA- Senator Hoekstra. The only votes against came from the rest of the CDA, ChristenUnie and SGP. The law states that the newly appointed civil servants from the registry have to enable all marriages, including those between two men or two women. Acting civil servants may remain as they are, but municipalities can transfer them. Gay interest organization COC is very happy with the new law. According to the organization, this means "an end to discrimination on the most beautiful day of your life." The COC would rather have seen acting civil servants being obligated to marry gay partners as well. .