The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has shredded a major talking point for advocates of same-sex marriage when it issued a ruling saying that same-sex marriage is not a human right.
European Court of Human Rights in Strasborg
According to The Right Perspective, the ruling comes from a case involving Valerie Gas and Nathalie Dubois, a lesbian couple in a civil union since 2002. The women accused French courts of discriminating against them because they were not allowed to adopt a child as a couple due to the fact that they were not permitted to marry in that country.
The court decided that not allowing Gas and Dubois to marry was not discrimination.
The couple has been together since at least 1989 and after DuBois gave birth to a child using a sperm donor, Gas tried to become the adoptive parent, but was barred from doing so.
According to the AFP, the court ruled that denying the adoption also wasn’t discriminatory because straight couples in civil unions weren’t allowed to adopt either.
“The European Convention on Human Rights does not require member states’ governments to grant same-sex couples access to marriage,” they declared.
The judges added that couples who are not married do not enjoy the same status as those who are.
“With regard to married couples, the court considers that in view of the social, personal, and legal consequences of marriage, the applicants’ legal situation could not be said to be comparable to that of married couples.”
Opponents of same-sex marriage were jubilant over the ruling. Norman Wells, of the Family Education Trust in the UK, a country which is currently debating the legalization of same-sex marriage, said: “For too long campaigners have been using the language of rights in an attempt to add moral force to what are nothing more than personal desires. In many cases they have bypassed the democratic process and succeeded in imposing their views on the rest of the population by force of law.”
Referring to the controversy currently raging in England over the unions, “We are seeing the same principle at work in the Government’s sham of a consultation on same-sex marriage,” he said.
“The ruling from the ECHR will embolden those whose concerns about same-sex marriage and adoption are not inspired by personal hatred and animosity, but by a genuine concern for the well-being of children and the welfare of society. Instead of rushing to legislate without seriously considering the views of the electorate, the Government should be encouraging a measured public debate on the nature and meaning of marriage.”
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