Hungarian government to decide on gay partnerships

Hungary's governing parties have reportedly agreed to tackle the issue of same-sex relationships, probably by introducing some form of legal partnership.

Theoretically, both governing parties are willing to provide equal rights for same-sex couples, though only two MSZP MPs supported the liberal party's suggestion at a human rights commission meeting, writes hirszerzo.hu.

In Hungary, same-sex couples have absolutely no legal background for their relationships, which makes many aspects of their lives complicated. They are not entitled to the same property rights as married couples, the same exemptions as married couples on inheritance tax, social security and pension benefits. In addition, they cannot be granted parental responsibility for a partner's children, tenancy rights, full life insurance recognition, next-of-kin rights in hospitals, and others.

In Western countries, same-sex couples already have legal rights by three different models. The Dutch-Belgian-Spanish model provides full equality for same-sex couples, practically extending the concept of marriage. The Scandinavian-German-British model provides civil partnership for same-sex couples, which still keeps some elements of discrimination, but provides a legal background for them. The French-Luxembourgian model introduced civil solidarity contract called PACS (Pacte civil de solidarité) for all couples which can be terminated without legal measures, but does not provide rights of inheritance or adoption.

In the former Eastern Bloc, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Croatia introduced registered cohabitation, which provides fewer rights than civil partnerships, but more than PACS'.

Conservative parties oppose all of these proposals stating that marriage can be made only between opposite sex partners, and they are afraid that married people would register with a third person. Furthermore, they would not allow same-sex couples to adopt children, claiming that it would damage the healthy development of the child, an argument that has been proven false by a body of psychological research.

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