Parlemen Denmark hari ini mengesahkan undang-undang buat memperbolehkan pasangan homoseksual melangsungkan pernikahan di gereja Evangelis Lutheran milik negara.
Stasiun televisi Al-Arabiya melaporkan, Kamis (7/6), undang-undang itu dibahas pada awal tahun ini oleh golongan politik kiri-tengah. 85 anggota parlemen setuju mengesahkan beleid itu, sementara hanya 24 menolak. Sisanya 179 wakil rakyat absen dan dua abstain. Aturan hukum baru itu sedianya bakal berlaku mulai 15 Juni mendatang.
Fraksi penolak pengesahan undang-undang itu berasal dari Partai Rakyat Denmark. Mereka tegas menentang gereja memberikan restu terhadap perkawinan pasangan sejenis.
Denmark selama ini dikenal terdepan dalam membela hak-hak kaum homoseksual. Pada 1989, pemerintah negara itu membolehkan pecinta sesama jenis menikah di luar gereja dan mendapat restu dari pendeta. 20 tahun kemudian, pemerintah negara itu membolehkan pasangan gay mengadopsi anak.
Namun, pastur di tiap gereja itu boleh menolak menikahkan pasangan sesama jenis jika dia merasa hal itu bertentangan dengan hati nuraninya.
Menteri Urusan Kerohanian Denmark, Manu Sareen, mengatakan dia sangat gembira saat mengetahui beleid itu disahkan parlemen. “Hal ini bentuk kesetaraan terhadap pernikahan pasangan sejenis dan yang berbeda kelamin. Sebuah lompatan besar,” kata Manu kepada wartawan.
Pada waktu bersamaan, Partai Kristen Demokratik Denmark mengajukan gugatan terhadap pengesahan beleid itu. Mereka mengatakan hal itu merupakan pelanggaran terhadap hak kebebasan beragama dan inkonstitusional.
Menurut mantan anggota parlemen dari Partai Kristen Demokratik, Per Oerum Joergensen, akibat dari disahkannya peraturan itu sekitar 440 ribu anggota gereja negara menyangkal keikutsertaan mereka dan mempertimbangkan kembali apakah masih layak bergabung. “Kemungkinan mereka bakal bersama-sama bergabung menggugat negara,” kata Joergensen.[fas]
sumber : http://www.merdeka.comHomosexual couples in Denmark have won the right to get married in any church they choose, even though nearly one third of the country’s priests have said they will refuse to carry out the ceremonies.
The country’s parliament voted through the new law on same-sex marriage by a large majority, making it mandatory for all churches to conduct gay marriages.
Denmark’s church minister, Manu Sareen, called the vote “historic”.
“I think it’s very important to give all members of the church the possibility to get married. Today, it’s only heterosexual couples.”
Under the law, individual priests can refuse to carry out the ceremony, but the local bishop must arrange a replacement for their church.
The far-Right Danish People’s Party mounted a strong campaign against the new law, which nonetheless passed with the support of 85 of the country’s 111 MPs.
“Marriage is as old as man himself, and you can’t change something as fundamental,” the party’s church spokesperson Christian Langballe said during the debate. “Marriage is supposed to be between a man and a woman.”
Karsten Nissen, the Bishop of Viborg, who is refusing to carry out the ceremonies, has warned that the new law risks “splitting the church”.
“The debate has been really tough,” said Mr Sareen, an agnostic who has pushed hard for the legislation since taking his post last autumn.
“The minority among Danish people, politicians and priests who are against, they’ve really shouted out loud throughout the process.”
The first gay marriages will take place as soon as June 15. This contrasts with neighbouring Norway, where bishops are still debating the correct ‘ritual’ for the ceremonies, four years after a 2008 parliamentary vote in favour of gay marriage.
Stig Elling, a travel industry millionaire and former Right-wing politician, said he planned to marry his partner of 28 years next week.
“We have felt a little like we were living in the Middle Ages,” he told Denmark’s TV2 station. “I think it is positive that there is now a majority for it, and that there are so many priests and bishops who are in favour of it, and that the Danish population supports up about it. We have moved forward. It’s 2012.”
Denmark has been a pioneer in gay rights since 1989, when it became the first country in the world to offer civil unions for gay couples.
source ; www.telegraph.co.uk
