EU Parliament votes to force same-sex “marriage” on all member states

by Hilary White

ROME, November 24, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In virtually the same breath, the European Parliament has announced its intention to “strengthen the family” to deal with Europe’s coming demographic plunge, and impose “gay marriage” or homosexual civil partnerships on every member state in the Union.

The EU Parliament voted yesterday in favour of a report that is intended to compel all 27 member states to both mutually recognize and legally uphold the “effects of civil status documents” of another EU-state, that will impose the requirement to recognise homosexual “marriage,” civil partnerships or similar arrangements.

The pro-family group European Dignity Watch (EDW) says that the report, “besides the reasonable demands” it makes, “could imply” a Union-wide recognition of same-sex marriage “through a back door and severe overstepping of the principle of subsidiarity”.

According to Dignity Watch, Section 40 of the report “could mean that member states would be forced to indirectly recognize same-sex unions as equal to marriage even if such recognition does not exist in the respective country’s legal system.”

The consequence, the group said, “would be an uncontrollable ‘marriage-tourism’ to countries that recognize same-sex ‘marriage’” like Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Sweden, “or even polygamous ‘marriages’ …as recognized in the Netherlands.”

One of the most useful legal wedge issues for the EU’s homosexualist lobbyists has been the issue of “cross-border harmonization,” a concept that the member states must recognise laws, including those regarding the marital status of citizens, in all 27 states. This, combined with the legal freedom of all EU citizens to live in any EU state they choose, is the basis of arguments made by the influential homosexualist organisations like the International Gay and Lesbian Association (ILGA).

EDW says, “If the report passes as drafted now, it would violate severely the principle of subsidiarity, a key founding principle of the EU. There is an obvious risk to undermine the sovereignty of the Member States in family law and specifically the definition of marriage in their own country by shifting a definition of marriage from family law - which is an exclusive competence of the Member States - to procedural law.”

Section 40 mentions the right of citizens to “free movement” around the EU and “strongly supports plans to enable the mutual recognition of the effects of civil status documents.” It calls for “further efforts to reduce barriers for citizens who exercise their rights of free movement, particularly with regard to access to the social benefits to which they are entitled and their right to vote in municipal elections.”

Homosexual lobbyists have in several jurisdictions around the world successfully adopted the tactic of manipulating the courts to establish “gay marriage” or legal civil partnerships. In several cases, homosexual activists have “married” in one country for the sole purpose of forcing the courts, and later the legislatures, of another country to recognise their “union”.

ILGA recommends this method to its members, saying that the report can be “used for lobbying purposes” to “exert pressure on your governments to demand that domestic marriages are recognised all across the EU”.

At the same time it is attempting to impose a Union-wide dissolution of natural, procreative marriage, the EU is starting to recognise the threat of impending demographic collapse from its low fertility rates.

On November 11, the EU Parliament voted to support a report drafted by German MEP Thomas Mann on “Demographic challenge and solidarity between generations”.

The report stresses the importance of the natural family and the role of parents for the economic well-being of society in times of demographic change.

The report also calls for a “change in mentality” towards elderly people, who, it says, ought not to be considered a burden upon society, but rather an asset of stability. It called for recognition of churches and non-profit organizations that contribute to the “social development of society”.

It cited several reasons for the European “demographic winter” including the delay in adults both marrying and forming families in light of an “increasingly insecure labor market”.

The report forecasts a demographic shift in which there will be an increase of 4 to 11 per cent in elderly persons and a 100 to 66 million decrease by 2050 of young persons under the age of 15 years old between.