The Netherlands was the first country to legalize gay marriage, and now it is becoming the first country to ban objection to such ceremonies:
MPs voted on Tuesday afternoon for a change in the law to prevent civil servants refusing to conduct gay marriages.
Under current legislation, registrars can refuse to carry out a gay wedding if they are opposed on religious grounds.
... Gay rights organization COC Nederland welcomed the vote. ‘We expect the cabinet will now get on with it and work fast to ban Dutch civil servants from discrimination while practising their jobs,' chairwoman Vera Bergkamp told news agency ANP.
According to COC research, 58 local councils employ a total of 102 registrars who refuse to marry same sex couples. Nearly all are fundamentalist Christians. -- Dutch News
BosNewsLife tells the story of one registrar who has already lost his job:
A Christian civil servant has been fired by the Dutch city of The Hague for refusing to oversee same-sex marriages on Biblical grounds.
Wim Pijl, 67, said Tuesday, November 15, he would take legal action against the dismissal despite parliamentary support for gay weddings.
"For me this is a personal case," explained Pijl. He also told reporters that God opposes same-sex marriages. "As a Christian I learned from the Bible that there is only one marriage, between a man and a woman."
The Hague city government said through a spokesman that it had no other choice than to dismiss Pijl as he had "refused to take back his remarks."
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