Certain countries, including Britain and the USA, have anti-gay statutes and more overt violence against gays and discrimination by employers and society. In countries whose legal system is based on the Napoleonic Code ([eg] France and Belgium), homosexuality is ignored by the law and so in many ways gays are left to get on with their own private lives. But still certain rights granted married couples -- notably inheritance, insurance, property and adoption -- are not accorded single-sex couples