Check Out My Soapbox!

For those of you laboring under the delusion that the United States is the greatest country on earth without having been to very many other countries, I give you Germany. Remember Germany? The country that only 65 years ago was a hotbed of Nazi activity? Germany, the country united only recently by the fall of the Berlin wall? That Germany?

It turns out that Germans are pretty freakin' cool towards the gays. Keep in mind that this article is in addition to their Life Partnership law passed in 2000 which includes:

• May take the same surname
• Share household insurance
• Hospital visitation
• Act as the next of kin in key medical decisions
• Requirement of a court decision for divorce
• Resident status to foreign partners in binational couples
• Some parental rights regarding a partners’ biological children
• Status identical to married couples in tenancy, inheritance (excluding inheritance taxes), pensions, and health insurance
• Provision for one partner to collect support, after a divorce
• Pension inheritance
• Originally, couples did not have the right to adopt children, however, this has since been corrected to allow a partner’s already existing children to be adopted
• Key financial provisions which would have ended discrimination in income and inheritance tax laws (Some of these have now been addressed)
• Requirement to support an unemployed partner

Please realize that Robin and I are not guaranteed any of the above by law. Not one. If Robin were ill, it would be from the kindness and love of his family that they would allow me to make decisions on his behalf. As it stands right now, I wouldn't have any legal precedence if they wanted it otherwise.

It's encouraging to me that Germany would now include the atrocities committed against homosexuals living in Germany during the Nazi occupation at the Holocaust memorial. On a fundamental level, it means that Germany acknowledges the humanity of homosexuals and views them as equal. The movement towards acceptance of all cultures and lifestyles is something that Germany (and most of Europe in general, including the Czech Republic) is at least a decade ahead of us on.

Just what makes a country great? And a stretch further, what makes one the greatest? In my opinion, it is not economic might or the powerful war machine. It is that country's ability to uphold each of its citizens' rights and encourage individual freedom. It is that country's ability to adhere to founding principles of justice and equality, regardless of differences in race or culture. I think that in times such as these, when all a minority group wants is equal treatment under the law, the problem doesn't lie with their request. The problem lies in the fact that their basic request exposes the blatant and abhorrent discrimination people take for granted. It is much easier to fight for the way something "has always been" than to open oneself to change. A country stagnated by popular opinion and bloated on a false sense of security is not a great one, it is a deluded one.