A heterosexual couple in Austria has taken the government there to court to have their relationship legally .jpg)
recognised as a “registered partnership” – a new form of civil union reserved only for same-sex couples.
The couple, Helga Ratzenboeck and Martin Seydl claim not to want a traditional marriage and are arguing that the law should not discriminate on the grounds of gender and sexuality.
The lawyer representing the couple says that they already have grown up children and are not interested in adopting.
“They are more interested in a more loose, modern form of partnership with a shorter time period for divorce and lower maintenance obligations afterwards,” says Helmut Graupner.
Ireland’s Civil Partnership Bill also allows for a shorter time period before a couple can ‘divorce’. They must show they have lived separate lives for two out of the last three years as distinct from four out of the last five years for heterosexual married couples.
Mr Graupner is also representing two Austrian same-sex couples, one gay and other lesbian, wanting a traditional marriage.
Austria’s Constitutional Court turned down the idea of marriage for gay couples in 2003, on the grounds that the purpose of marriage was reproduction.
Austria is the eighth EU country to have introduced partnerships for same-sex couples which offer them most or all of the rights of marriage. The others are Britain, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary and Slovenia.
Austria’s “registered partnerships” do not bring adoption rights or access to fertility treatment.
In France, the equivalent of civil partnerships – PACS – are extremely popular with heterosexual couples.