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On January 30, 2003, Belgium became the second country in the world to offer legal marriage to same-sex couples. While many countries offer some kind of domestic partnership status — and many mistakenly refer to it as marriage — none have the full equality in legal, economic and social stature as is available in legal marriage. The original Belgium marriage license’s was severely flawed in that it did not allow adoption of children as a couple. Some couples did not want to marry because it prevented them from adopting children. Birth within a same-sex marriage did not imply affiliation, as the same-sex spouse of the biological parent had no way to become the legal parent. A proposal to permit adoption was approved by the Chamber of Representatives of the parliament on December 1, 2005. In April 2006, it passed and enabled legal co-parenting by same-sex couples. Originally, the license only allowed marriage between Belgians, or between Belgians and people from countries where a marriage of same-sex couples was also allowed. An October 1, 2004 law change made it possible for any foreign same-sex couple to marry in Belgium if at least one of the spouses has lived there for three months. The original bill had been already approved by the Senate, and prevailed in the House of Representatives, with a 91-22 vote (nine abstentions). The opposition Christian democrat CdH and the extreme right Vlaams Blok voted against it. The law, years in the making, had to overcome criticism of the country’s top administrative court, which ruled that the concept of marriage legally represented “union between a man and woman.” The government parties decided the ignore the legal advice and proceeded with the bill nevertheless. As of November 22, 2004, more than 300 same-sex legal marriages have taken place in Belgium. By July 2005, 2,442 same-sex couples had married in Belgium, according to the Interior Ministry. A total of 3 percent of all Belgium marriages are same-sex, Flemish broadcaster VRT reported. This high rate of marriage may result from the fact that many same-sex couples had been living together for years, and it was only relatively recently possible for them to marry. Should a Belgium same-sex married couple come to the U.S., it seems likely that the U.S. would refuse to recognize the marriage because the U.S. government and a majority of U.S. states have made laws denying recognition to any legal marriage licenses held by same-sex couples. The U.S. has no international obligations to recognize marriages from other nations, but generally has done so, unless they violate established public policy.
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