22 November 2008
Civil unions no substitute for marriage?
1 June 2007
By Priscilla Duncan: Te Waha Nui Online
On the two-year anniversary of civil unions in New Zealand, passions still run high within the gay and lesbian community over the worth of this new institution.
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The civil union bill came into law on August 26, 2005, after a long and controversial journey through Parliament. Since then almost 900 couples have tied the knot.
Labour MP Tim Barnett, who backed the bill, intended the law to give same-sex couples equivalent rights to heterosexual couples, but not everyone is satisfied.
For couples like Jenny Rowan and Jools Joslin, who have been together 20 years and share six children, the civil union law is still a bitter disappointment.
“There is a public perception in New Zealand now that lesbian and gay people have equal rights and that’s simply not true,” said 56-year-old Rowan.
Rowan and Joslin have been waiting years for same-sex marriage to be legalised and were involved in taking on the Crown in the High Court over their inability to marry in the 1996 Quilter case. They finally travelled to Canada last year to have a legal marriage.
‘Half a human right’
AUT University public policy lecturer Marilyn Waring also condemns the new institution.
The ex-National MP, who has been called the most prominent lesbian woman in the country by gay newspaper Express, gave a public lecture last month attacking civil unions for not giving gays and lesbians the dignity they deserve.
“Marriage is a means of conferring the highest form of social approval and everyone should have access to it,” said Waring. “What we’ve created with civil unions in New Zealand is a precedent for half a human right and that’s a dangerous thing. Equivalence does not mean equality.”
But others from the gay and lesbian community support civil unions and would not opt for marriage if it were an option.
New institution, new values
Rosemary Neave, who had a civil union last year with her partner Ngaire Brader, said she would not have chosen marriage partly because of its long and chequered history.
“I think it’s a positive thing that civil unions are not associated with the long-standing, traditional, patriarchal institution of marriage,” said Neave.
“With marriage, you’re always battling against tradition. I quite like the potential of civil unions in that you can create a new institution with new values.”
