Plasterk: ‘Acknowledge
same-sex marriages’
AMSTERDAM--Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius may have to register same-sex marriages in the future. And if it is up to Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science Ronald Plasterk, all partners in the Kingdom will do the same.
“Same-sex marriages should be acknowledged in the entire Kingdom. I find that to be normal,” Plasterk said at a lecture in Amsterdam Friday evening. Registering a same-sex marriage is something else than the possibility for gay persons to get married, he explained. “But once they are married, their marriage should be formally recognised.”
When Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius, the BES islands, are integrated into the Netherlands as ‘public entities,’ they will resort under the Dutch civil code. Consequently, these islands should include same-sex marriages in the Civil Registry, suggested Plasterk. In the Netherlands, persons of the same sex can get married.
Plasterk said the BES islands would have to formally acknowledge same-sex marriages and register these marriages in the Civil Registry. “It will take some time getting used to this. Gay marriages have been acknowledged in the Netherlands for seven to eight years now, and I everyone also had to get used to it,” said the Minister, noting that twenty years ago, gay marriages were also unthinkable in the Netherlands.
“We have to see how we could work this out together in a satisfactory manner, as partners in the Kingdom,” said Plasterk. He stressed that it was important to respect each other’s opinion and added that the issue of emancipation and same-sex marriages remained a responsibility of each country in the Kingdom.
