Register hits 100 couples
Guenter Willi Buegler, 66, and Gurjit Singh, 50, last week became the 100th couple in Victoria to have their relationship formally recognised by the Victorian Relationships Register.
The couple have been together 20 years. They met on April 22, 1989 in Malaysia while Singh was working as an engineer in Kuala Lumpur and Buegler, a German national, was en route to Australia working as a Lufthansa flight attendant.
Singh migrated to Australia in 1989 and the pair now divide their time between Frankfurt, Germany and Melbourne.
The couple are going through a similar process in Germany to register their partnership.
Victorian Deputy Premier and Attorney-General Rob Hulls congratulated the Melbourne couple and said the milestone highlighted the success of the new register.
The register provides recognition that a couple is in a loving, caring relationship and makes it easier for them to access their entitlements without having to repeatedly provide evidence of their relationship, Hulls said.
The register has now given 100 couples the opportunity to acknowledge their committed relationship and know that their decision is respected in Victoria.
Buegler, who said the couple have no intention to marry even if it was available, told Sydney Star Observer they decided to register their relationship after 20 years to feel more legally secure.
Actually we don’t want to be married. We just want to have the same rights as other couples. That is the important thing for us -” to be recognised by the rest of society that we are registered partners and we want to have the same rights.
We are very happy we could do this here in Australia.
The couple also celebrated their union with a romantic dinner on their anniversary date and a holiday in Samoa.
Since the register was established last December, more male couples than female have registered their relationships, with male couples making up 50 percent of registrations.
Six heterosexual couples have also registered since the scheme began.
We are very pleased with the number of applications received to date, and expect this number to grow as more reform at a national level recognises the rights of couples in a domestic relationship, Births, Deaths and Marriages Registrar Helen Trihas said.
Domestic partners are now recognised in almost 80 Victorian Acts and registration of a relationship provides conclusive proof of a domestic relationship in Victoria.
To register, couples need to be over 18 years of age and both be living in Victoria.
The cost of applying to register a relationship is $180.
info: For more information on the Victorian Relationships Register and how it works visit bdm.vic.gov.au.
People may like to know how clearly discriminatory this fee is.
If you want to get married in Victoria you have to pay the celebrant, the venue and so on – fair enough. But you don’t have to pay to register your marriage – this is free. You do have to pay if you want a legal certificate (the one at the ceremony is actually only a keepsake). It costs $26.60.
If you want to register your relationship you pay $180.00 plus a fee for the certificate. The Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages asserts these fees are ‘cost recovery’, and I think they’d be right. But, then, who pays for the work of registering marriages, if it isn’t those who WANT to be married?
Congratulations to Gurjit and Günter! It’s a great story. Equal recognition for same sex couples is long overdue, and what a great couple to be the hundredth.
Since 1969 I am Günter´s very close friend, and I am waiting for him and Gurjit to attend them here in Madrid to celebrate their partnership registration again during their European summer holidays. Gay marriage with exactly the same rights compared to heteros is a standard in Spain since 4 years, and I got married with my same sex partner last year as well. All my congratulations and abraces to my dear friends Günter and Gurjit there in Australia !
I think this is great! Its a major step for Victorians towards recognising same sex relationships. Although there are some heterosexual relationships, I believe the biggest benefit will be for same sex relationships. I would also like to congratulate Guenter and Gurjit for registering their relationship, legally. Good on you guys!
Also, Eusebius of Caesaria (265-330AD) biographer of the Emperor Constantine records “Among the Gauls, the young men marry each other with complete freedom. In doing this, they do not incur any reproach or blame, since this is done according to custom amongst them.”
Bardaisan of Edessa (154-“222AD), best known for his account of Roman first contact with the kingdoms of India, also recorded, “In the countries of the north- in the lands of the Germans and those of their neighbors, handsome young men assume the role of wives towards other men, and they celebrate marriage feasts.”
At the height of their dominion prior to the rise of the Greek and Roman powers, the Celtic peoples of Europe spread as far as Ireland and Spain in the West, to the Ukraine and the Anatolia region of Turkey in the East- suggesting such customs would have once been very far spread indeed.
In the Ancient Chinese kingdom of Fujian a man could marry both a wife and a husband- who was given the title “adoptive younger brother” and moved into the older man’s family home, thereafter treated by his parents as a son-in-law.
These Chinese same-sex marriages were conducted with their own specific ceremonies in which a carp, duck and rooster were sacrificed to the Gods.
The two men smeared the animals’ mingled blood on each others lips and then swore eternal loyalty to each other.
This was followed by a marriage feast attended by the extended families of both men.
In this period heterosexual marriages were solely about property and the continuation of the family line- whereas gay marriages were based on love alone and could cross class boundaries that were taboo for heterosexual pairings.
Read a little Ancient history and your argument falls apart.
Hey Merlot- baptism was inspired by the church as well- does that mean we shouldn’t have names?
I want to personally congradulate both of these men!!! Now when will NSW “finally catch-up” to provide a relationship register??? Parentage was a good start last year – but we here in NSW need to provide more equality and NSW is always last when it comes to equality!!! Even adoption and altrustic surrogacy (commercial surroacy is already illegal for everyone, regardless) are not legally recognised in NSW for same-sex couples also. We need to “force” Nathan Rees “kicking and screaming” – until we get these three legal things in NSW:
a) relationship register for all couples;
b) adoption equality for same-sex couples and;
c) surrogacy (altrustic only, NOT commercial) for all couples.
I am thinking of moving to Victoria, were gays are treated much more equally and fairly – unlike NSW. Victoria have surrogacy (altrustic only, NOT commercial), IVF access, parentage, a relationship register and just completed an inquiry into adoption for same-sex couples.
James, you are right…fighting for equal rights should not mean having marriage, hence my support for civil unions rather than the church inspired heterosxual institution marriage.
When will the “NSW clown” Nathan Rees going to introduce a relationship register here?? – We are waiting!!!
Their comment that they don’t want to be married, but they just want to have the same rights as everyone else is intriguing. How exactly do they have the same rights under the relationship registry? They don’t. Equality isn’t about having the some of the rights and responsibilities of others, it’s about having all of them.
People need to understand that the word marriage isn’t the issue, it’s the legal protection that the government issues with it that’s important. Separate laws do not create equality.
Thanks for your comment. I still think that 100 couples is a tiny amount to have registered in 5 – 6 months. As for me, I’d never heard of it. Maybe the existence of this register is not widely known. Maybe it’s the $180 registration fee.
100 couples? That’s a paltry amount considering that homosexuals apparently make up 10% of the population and they are gagging to legalise their relationships. What is going on?
Editor’s Note: Actually James, if you consider the register was only opened at the end of last year it is a fast take up. Also, keep in mind this register is open to gay and straight couples, so picking out the 10% figure is very mischevious.