Dutch Gay Marriage Statistics Released

Originally published by The Associated Press, December 12, 2001

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch civil servants wed nearly 2,000 same-sex couples in the first six months after gay marriage was legalized this year, a government agency said Wednesday.

The gay marriage law that took effect on April 1 made the Netherlands the first country to grant gay couples the same rights as heterosexual couples, including the right to adopt children.

The Central Bureau of Statistics said 2,100 men and 1,700 women had married someone of the same sex by Sept. 30.

Gay marriages comprised 3.6 percent of all new marriages. In April, this figure was more than 6 percent as gays rushed to take advantage of the new law, but it gradually stabilized at around 3 percent.

Sixteen percent of the people who married someone of the same sex had earlier been in a heterosexual marriage. Most were divorced, and a few were widows or widowers.