Christian Democrats facing U-turn on same-sex couples

Published on 25/02/2013 02:45

Leading members of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) are considering a U-turn in policy on same sex couples after a court ordered the government to grant them greater adoption rights, in an embarrassing ruling for the chancellor.

Germany’s constitutional court ruled last week that gay people should be allowed to adopt a child already adopted by their partner, and that the present ban was unconstitutional because it violated the principle of equal treatment.

The court gave the government until July 2014 to amend the law, which applies to gay people in civil partnerships.

“We will of course implement the constitutional court’s ruling – that is called for now. At the same time, we will see whether tax amendments are necessary,” Volker Kauder, leader of the CDU’s parliamentary group, told Welt am Sonntag yesterday.

At a party congress last December the CDU threw out a proposal to give same-sex couples the same tax perks as heterosexual couples.