Germany's foreign minister Guido Westerwelle ties the knot with his long-time partner Michael Mronz:
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle formalized his social
union with his long-time partner on Friday evening in Bonn, German mass
circulation paper Bild reported.According to the paper the marriage was pronounced by the mayor of Bonn, with only close family members and friends present.
A spokesman for the Free Democrats, Merkel's junior coalition
partner of which Westerwelle is the head, confirmed the report but did
not comment any further, adding that the two men "wish to keep this a
private affair."
Almost all the headlines in the German press used the words heiraten (to marry) or Hochzeit (wedding), but this is misleading, since same-sex couples do not have the same standing under German law as heterosexual couples. In August 2001, Germany passed legislation allowing registered
partnerships but, despite being one of the most sexually “progressive”
countries in Europe, declined to go so far as to include same-sex partnerings in the legal definition of marriage.
For the most part, the articles in the press on various blogs are supportive and congratulatory about Guido and Michael. An exception might be the "Catholic" Holocaust-denial site kreuz.net which damned the "newlyweds" for bringing shame to Germany (Außenminister seiner selber: Statt sein Land zu vertreten, opfert er dessen Ansehen auf dem Dämonenaltar seiner Homo-Störungen.)
Even though in the US same-sex marriage is now legal in five states, we are still years away in this country from seeing a national political figure marrying his/her same-sex partner. Westerwelle's ceremony coincides with the Republican Party's Values Voter Summit in Washington DC, where it is quite clear that the GOP is Still Homophobic After All These Years.
