[Lauchenoiria]

Kerlian News Service

International Edition

Amendment to Council Daughter Act passed by Council in surprise decision
9th December 2020

An amendment to the Education and Upbringing of Daughters of the Council Act has passed its first hurdle, gaining the approval of the Council of Kerlile. The amendment will make it legal for Councillors and their heirs to raise male children, marry males and involve the fathers of their children in their children’s lives. The passage of this amendment will come as a shock to many across the globe as there had previously been opposition to change by more than half of the Council.

In another shock move, Councillor Hale’s Democracy Bill is proceeding to a debate in Parliament, after months of trying to get the bill passed by the Council. Voting records for yesterday’s Council session, which was not marked as a closed session on the agenda, have not been released due to “security reasons”. It is therefore unknown which Councillor who had previously publicly opposed the changes voted in favour of the amendment.

Xia Chiu, second in line to the Chiu family seat on the Council, presently resident in Lauchenoiria due to giving birth to a son, spoke to the Kerlian News Service via video interview and is “ecstatic” about the changes. “I will finally be able to return home with both my children, who are both part of my family. The Council can only be strengthened by this amendment, as it strengthens the very fabric of our families.”

Former President of Kerlile Joanna Greenwood, on the other hand, publicly condemned the decision, claiming that it will lead to “degeneracy and decay”, and will distract the minds of the Council from their mission to seek full women’s liberation across the globe. Greenwood has been a staunch supporter of the restrictions on marriage and child rearing for those who will one day become Councillors, and had previously lobbied for a change to the marriage law to make it stricter by outlawing lesbian marriage for Councillors also.

Council marriage laws have been in the news regularly since the return of Councillor Jennifer Hale to Kerlile, following her marriage to now-Lauchenoirian Prime Minister Josephine Alvarez. A court decision interpreting the EUCDA rules as banning marriage only to men allowed Hale’s marriage to be recognised in Kerlian law, which provides certain privileges to Alvarez should she visit the country in the future.

The Parliament of Kerlile is set to begin debates on the Democracy Bill in the new year, including discussions of fair and free elections, shorter terms for Members of Parliament, reducing the influence of the Council on the workings of Parliament, and running open Presidential Elections. A clause in the original draft extending voting rights to males was removed from the draft sent to Parliament.