The right wing media fails again

And the Bushies got all riled about this, despite it being WHOLLY IRRELEVANT to their irrational fear of boys kissing:

On an Illinois radio show I did last week -- available on our website or at this
link -- one anti-gay caller characteristically avoided offering a reason why
the government should continue excluding same-sex couples from marriage and, as
usual, went to the "slippery slope" diversion of "polygamy." As new proof that
the sky was falling, the caller said that the Netherlands, which has ended the
exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage, has now also allowed a trio of man
and two women to wed. Before yet another right-wing scare tactic gathers
traction, please note that this claim -- that the Netherlands registered a
multi-partner "civil union" -- is untrue.

Following the radio interview, we looked into the caller's claim and found an erroneous September 27 report in something called the Brussels Journal -- www.brusselsjournal.com -- misusing the term "civil union" and talking about something "registered by a notary." Once we checked this with a leading Dutch expert who follows legal developments in family law, we learned that the only legally relevant thing that happened was that three people, with the help of a notary, signed a private cohabitation contract -- and did not enter into any kind of legal state-recognized union. Such personal agreements are not registered, and do not have legal implications for third parties. In both these respects, as well with regard to the state's imprimatur, a personal agreement or contract is different from both marriage and registered partnership. (And civil union, as such, is not a legal status in the
Netherlands).

Again, this was a private arrangement among three people, not a
marriage or partnership or union. According to our Dutch expert, there is no law
in the Netherlands (nor in most other countries) that limits the number of
parties who can among themselves make a personal agreement or cohabitation
contract. Dutch law does not regulate cohabitation contracts as such. Some Dutch
laws (for example in the fields of tax and social security), however, attach
certain legal consequences to the de facto cohabitation of two people (whether
or not these cohabitants have signed a cohabitation contract), but never to the
de facto cohabitation of three or more people. With respect to de facto (i.e.
unregistered) cohabitation there has not been any recent change in Dutch law.