Constitutional Court Affirms Sexual Apartheid
12/11/2011
Submitted by
Rechtskomitee LAMBDA
Rechtskomitee LAMBDA speaks out against preferential treatment of homosexuals
In a decision delivered yesterday the Austrian Constitutional Court declared admissible the exclusion of heterosexual couples from registered partnership, which bounds couples more loosely then marriage and is easier to dissolve. Heterosexuals would be no historically disadvantaged group. Their exclusion from registered partnership would not exceed legislature’s margin of appreciation. Rechtskomitee LAMBDA (RKL), Austria’s LGBT civil rights organisation, speaks out against disadvantageous treatment of heterosexuals and announced to bring the case before the European Court of Human Rights.
Helga Ratzenböck and Martin Seydl for many years have been living in a stable partnership and they have an adult daughter. Traditional civil marriage never was an attractive option for them. So they never married.
Registered partnership, introduced in 2010, much more fits to their idea of a modern legal institution for couples. It, for instance, has shorter waiting-periods for divorce and carries lesser maintenance-obligations after divorce. There is no obligation to monogamy, but instead a duty to a comprehensive relationship of trust. The couple does not wish further children, and so they don’t care about the numerous discriminations of registered partners in the care for children. In addition restriction, solely on the basis of sex, of a new legal institution introduced in the 21st century they consider intrinsically discriminating.
Helga Ratzenböck and Martin Seydl asked the City of Linz to allow them to register their partnership and took their case up to the Constitutional Court. The 13 judges in their decision of 22 September 2011 (B 1405/109) declared admissible their exclusion from registered partnership. Heterosexuals, they said, are not a historically disadvantaged group (par. 23). Their exclusion from registered partnership rests within the legislature’s margin of appreciation. Homo- and heterosexual couples would not only be not identical, but not even comparable in each respect (par. 30). So they may be separated into marriage on the one hand and registered partnership on the other (par. 30).
No strict scrutiny for discrimination of heterosexuals
In sharp contrast to its hyphen-decision (B 518/11), delivered the same day, in which the Court decided on discrimination of homosexual couples, the judges in the case of the heterosexual couple did not apply a strict scrutiny test, checking whether their exclusion from registered partnership is necessary for “particularly serious reasons”.
Rechtskomitee LAMBDA (RKL), Austria’s LGBT civil rights organisation, deplores this judgment and the fact that the Constitutional Court, called to be the watchdog of human rights, affirmed sexual segregation into a homosexual ghetto (registered partnership) on the one hand and a heterosexual ghetto (civil marriage) on the other. The case now goes up to the European Court of Human Rights.
„We homosexuals are asking for equal rights and equal obligations, we do not want to be disdavantaged“, says Dr. Helmut Graupner, president of Austria’s LGBT civil rights organisation Rechtskomitee LAMBDA (RKL) and counsel of Ms. Ratzenböck und Mr. Seydl, “We, however, neither want preferential treatment for us and disadvantage for heterosexuals”. “Protection against discrimination should not be a one-way road; heterosexuals must be protected as strictly as homosexuals".
More information: Rechtskomitee LAMBDA, (++43/1/876 30 61), office@RKLambda.at; www.RKLambda.at
In a decision delivered yesterday the Austrian Constitutional Court declared admissible the exclusion of heterosexual couples from registered partnership, which bounds couples more loosely then marriage and is easier to dissolve. Heterosexuals would be no historically disadvantaged group. Their exclusion from registered partnership would not exceed legislature’s margin of appreciation. Rechtskomitee LAMBDA (RKL), Austria’s LGBT civil rights organisation, speaks out against disadvantageous treatment of heterosexuals and announced to bring the case before the European Court of Human Rights.
Helga Ratzenböck and Martin Seydl for many years have been living in a stable partnership and they have an adult daughter. Traditional civil marriage never was an attractive option for them. So they never married.
Registered partnership, introduced in 2010, much more fits to their idea of a modern legal institution for couples. It, for instance, has shorter waiting-periods for divorce and carries lesser maintenance-obligations after divorce. There is no obligation to monogamy, but instead a duty to a comprehensive relationship of trust. The couple does not wish further children, and so they don’t care about the numerous discriminations of registered partners in the care for children. In addition restriction, solely on the basis of sex, of a new legal institution introduced in the 21st century they consider intrinsically discriminating.
Helga Ratzenböck and Martin Seydl asked the City of Linz to allow them to register their partnership and took their case up to the Constitutional Court. The 13 judges in their decision of 22 September 2011 (B 1405/109) declared admissible their exclusion from registered partnership. Heterosexuals, they said, are not a historically disadvantaged group (par. 23). Their exclusion from registered partnership rests within the legislature’s margin of appreciation. Homo- and heterosexual couples would not only be not identical, but not even comparable in each respect (par. 30). So they may be separated into marriage on the one hand and registered partnership on the other (par. 30).
No strict scrutiny for discrimination of heterosexuals
In sharp contrast to its hyphen-decision (B 518/11), delivered the same day, in which the Court decided on discrimination of homosexual couples, the judges in the case of the heterosexual couple did not apply a strict scrutiny test, checking whether their exclusion from registered partnership is necessary for “particularly serious reasons”.
Rechtskomitee LAMBDA (RKL), Austria’s LGBT civil rights organisation, deplores this judgment and the fact that the Constitutional Court, called to be the watchdog of human rights, affirmed sexual segregation into a homosexual ghetto (registered partnership) on the one hand and a heterosexual ghetto (civil marriage) on the other. The case now goes up to the European Court of Human Rights.
„We homosexuals are asking for equal rights and equal obligations, we do not want to be disdavantaged“, says Dr. Helmut Graupner, president of Austria’s LGBT civil rights organisation Rechtskomitee LAMBDA (RKL) and counsel of Ms. Ratzenböck und Mr. Seydl, “We, however, neither want preferential treatment for us and disadvantage for heterosexuals”. “Protection against discrimination should not be a one-way road; heterosexuals must be protected as strictly as homosexuals".
More information: Rechtskomitee LAMBDA, (++43/1/876 30 61), office@RKLambda.at; www.RKLambda.at
