BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's gays and lesbians have scored a victory over the country's opposition conservatives as the highest court ruled in favour of a new law allowing same-sex marriages.
The Constitutional Court rejected a complaint by conservative-ruled states which argued that recognising gay marriages upset family values enshrined in the constitution.
The conservatives want to project themselves as guardians of the traditional family ahead of a September election. They are ahead in opinion polls, largely because of high unemployment rather than because they hold any moral high ground.
The law, championed by the environmentalist Greens party and approved by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats with whom they govern, came into force last August.
It was accompanied by much media fanfare, with front pages showing photos of gay men cutting wedding cakes together.
Germany's LSVD association of gays and lesbians said in a statement on Wednesday: "The judges have told the conservative hardliners once and for all that discrimination against lesbian and homosexual couples runs counter to the constitution."
GAY MAYOR PLEASED
Berlin's Social Democrat Mayor Klaus Wowereit, who is openly gay, also welcomed the decision. "It's a decisive step towards ensuring that Germany recognises as normal something that has never been abnormal," he said.
Anti-gay measures passed in 1935 formed part of a Nazi philosophy that deemed homosexuals alien to the state's aim to create a "super-race".
Those found guilty faced years in prison or concentration camps, where thousands died. Other gay men were forcibly sterilised or subjected to medical experiments. The legislation remained unchanged on Germany's statute books until 1969.
Today, homosexuality is broadly accepted in Germany and many cities have openly gay districts and hold gay parades. Wowereit's public coming out scarcely featured in the Berlin regional election that brought him to power last October.
Voters are largely indifferent about their politicians' personal lives, whether gay or straight. Schroeder and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer have each been married four times.
There have been an estimated 4,500 gay marriages since the law came into force. Some five percent of adults over 20 in Germany are believed to be gay, according to the LSVD.
Under the new law, lesbians and gays who register their relationships have the same inheritance rights as heterosexuals, may share a common surname, and their foreign partners will be allowed to join them in Germany.
But the law does not accord lesbian and gay couples the tax advantages granted to heterosexual married pairs, or the right to adopt children. The relationships are not officially called "marriages" but "registered life partnerships".
Several Scandinavian countries as well as the Netherlands, France and Portugal have passed similar laws.
Edmund Stoiber, conservative challenger to Schroeder, said he regretted the court's ruling but would not try to repeal the law if he wins the election.
However, he said he would fight attempts to grant homosexual couples the same tax advantages heterosexual couples enjoy.
"I am against alternative forms of partnership becoming closely equivalent to the state of marriage," said Stoiber, a grandfather married to the same woman for 30 years.
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