The definition of marriage is the union of two people who wishes to be together for as long as they live. However, because of some religions and traditions, this is defined as a union between a man and a woman, so technically, a marriage between a man and another man or a woman with another woman is morally wrong. This may still be a taboo subject especially to people who are extremely religious, but as of 2017, there are now 28 countries in the world who are legalizing marriage between town genders.
This all began when the Romanian authorities have not permitted a man from the United States named Claiborne Robert Hamilton to live with his husband, Adrian Coman, in Romania. The said husband is a native of Romania but the Romanian government refused to let the spouse be a resident of Romania since he cannot actually be considered as a EU citizen. This is all because Romania prohibits marriage between two people of the same gender.
The said couple then challenged the decision of the authorities saying that it is indeed conspired to be discriminatory when it comes to a person’s preferred gender. Which is the the government of Romania referred this case to the court of the European Union. Coman and Hamilton have actually been married since 2010 and have been living in the United States.
According to the ECJ or the European Court Justice , every member of the European Union must recognize the rights of gay married couples, that I’d even if your country does not permit gay marriage. That is what Advocate General Melchior Wathelet stated, he even added that the term ‘spouse’ must be refer to either married men or women of the same gender. This is even if the member of the states are actually free to authorize marriages whether it is between a man and a woman or the same gender, they don’t necessarily have the right to impede the freedom of residence of a person who is a European citizen wanting his or her spouse from a non-European country a right of permanent residence to their country of choice. Wathelet is actually a Belgian advocate general from the Luxembourg court, his opinion actually has a big impact since despite it being non-binding, it is usually followed by the court. Because of this incident, it actually gave the European Union an opportunity to tackle about the directive rights of a European citizen together with their family members on how exactly is the process into moving from a place to another when it comes to marriage between the same genders since not every European country guarantees this union as legal.
In a written statement, Hamilton said how overjoyed he and his husband was when they found out that the Romanian authorities were absolutely wrong for not respecting their rights as a married couple. His husband Coman also mentioned how Romanian citizens must not be divided between the good and the gay, and that just because a man is married to another man doesn’t necessarily mean that they are treated as inferior citizens that actually lacks equal rights.
3 million people in Romania actually signed a petition for the referendum to amend the Constitution of Romania so that marriage would remain to be between only a man and a woman. Two conservative Christian groups like the Alliance of Romanian Families and the Coalition for Family, didn’t really respond to these requests from the people of Romania despite the fact that they are against the marriage between two people.
As of December 2017, there are 28 countries in the world that recognizes and legalizes marriage between the same genders such as Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, South Africa, Sweden, United States of American and Uruguay. It was during the beginning of the new millennium when the Netherlands became the very first European nation as well as the very first country in the world to recognize and allowing the marriage between the same genders.
This is despite the Muslim and Christian groups opposing to the law, the Dutch republic widely accepts this which became an example to different countries. In fact, Australia became the latest one to pass this law last December 2017.
