Is the United States the first country to afford marriage benefits and protections to same sex couples?
No country in the world yet allows same-sex couples the freedom to marry, and none provides gay and lesbian people the full range of protections, responsibilities, and benefits that come with civil marriage. Within the last decade, several countries have moved to create a new marital status — registered partnership: Denmark (1989), Norway (1993), Greenland (1994), Sweden (1995), Iceland (1996), the Netherlands (1998), and France (1999). While short of full equality, registered partnership recognizes the marital nature of lesbian and gay committed relationships and offers most, but not all, of the benefits and protections of civil marriage. Generally, registered partnership differs from marriage in that: registered partnership is not marriage itself, and thus can be viewed as separate or unequal; registered partners cannot adopt non-related children, or even each other’s children; registered partners cannot have an “official” church wedding in the country’s established national church;
