GAY and lesbian couples presented bunches of flowers to newlyweds outside registry offices throughout Germany yesterday as part of a campaign to legalise same sex marriage.
"We want equal rights. Gay couples have to struggle against many disadvantages in daily life," said Mr Leander Streubel, spokesman for the Saxony Gay Association.
Mr Streubel and his friend, Mr Thomas Krause, were the first to congratulate a young couple at Leipzig's registry office yesterday morning, telling them: "Think of us when you're getting married - because we're not allowed to."
The newlyweds wished the campaign the best of luck and the bride's father even took a photograph of the gay couple for the family album.
The German public favours allowing gay marriage by 48 per cent to 42 per cent, according to an opinion poll published this week. But there is little chance that Dr Helmut Kohl's centre right government will bring legislation forward.
Among the protesters in Leipzig were Mr Wolfgang Schlieder and Mr Klaus Diet rich, who have lived together for 35 years but are unlikely ever to marry. Mr Schlieder said that the right to marry was especially important for older gays, who are often for bidden to visit their partners in hospital and are penalised by the tax system if they bequeath property to one another.
"We're just campaigning here today for equal rights," he said.
. Four former East German security officers will go on trial next Friday accused of having supported eight convicted Red Army Faction (RAF) guerrillas, the Berlin justice authorities said yesterday.
The ex officers from East Berlin's feared Ministry for State Security (Stasi) aged between 48 and 66 will stand trial in Berlin accused of enabling the guerrillas to live in former Communist East Germany between 1980 and 1990.
They have also been charged with giving the eight a new identity there and money to help them settle in and integrate in the former Soviet satellite state.
