Jenny’s Pennies

So it’s Pentecost (a.k.a. Whitsun) weekend, which traditionally is a popular weekend for weddings here in Sweden. I read somewhere today though that nowadays, it’s more popular to tie the knot in August or September (something to do with the weather). What is also increasingly popular is to go abroad and get married. When you come home you send in the paperwork to the authorities, and your marriage is recognized in Sweden. Even if you have married someone who is underage and would not have been able to get legally married here - the authorities will make an exception to the age rule.

But they won’t make an exception to the sex rule. The Swedish gay couple Lars Gårdefeldt (who is a minister in the Church of Sweden, btw) and Lars Arnell got married (yes, married-married, the real deal) in Canada about two years ago. When they came home and sent in the paperwork, they were registered not as married, but in a “registered partnership” which is the name of formalized same sex relationships here.

They appealed the decision, and now, after being turned down in two other instances, the Supreme Administrative Court (Regeringsrätten) has given them leave to appeal. The couple seems hopeful, but Hans Regner, legal expert on the matter, doesn’t think that the court will acknowledge something we don’t have ourselves (i.e. same sex marriage). If the court recognizes their marriage as what it is - a marriage - then it will set a strange precedent: a same sex couple with the resources to travel to a country who allows same sex marriages will also be married in Sweden, but those who can’t or don’t want to get married abroad will have to do with the “registered partnership”. Of course that won’t work. So it would be a huge surprise if the court would do anything else than to turn down the couple’s request to be registered as married.

The gay marriage debate won’t be settled in courts - it is a legislative issue. And with over 70 percent of the population and all but one parliamentary party (a party which in the latest polls came in just above the 4% needed to be in the parliament) in favor of same sex marriage, I don’t know what we’re waiting for.

Media: SvD, DN

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 11th, 2008 at 11:51 pm and is filed under GLBT/Queer, Relationships, Sweden, Swedish politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.