Then in December , despite opposition from the country's Christian Democratic Party, legislation passed that expanded the definition of marriage to include people of the same sex.
This allowed same-sex couples to marry, divorce, and adopt children. Finally on April 1, , four same-sex couples married, followed by another that month. Same-sex couples in Belgium began receiving recognition through registered partnerships in , but it wasn't until that Parliament legalized same-sex marriage. This gave same-sex couples in Belgium the right to marry — which granted them the tax rights that heterosexual couples already enjoyed — and also officially recognized the status of same-sex couples who married in other countries.
In same-sex couples were given the right to adopt children. Despite strong opposition from conservative leaders and the Roman Catholic Church, the Spanish Parliament legalized same-sex marriage in a vote of to This granted same-sex couples inheritance, adoption, and divorce rights.
The country's Socialist Prime Minister at the time, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, proposed the bill shortly after his election in Although the federal government of Canada extended common law marriage rights to same-sex couples in , it wasn't until that the Canadian Parliament legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. When Canada's ruling Conservative Party attempted to re-open the debate in , Parliament voted against the motion.
In November , South Africa's highest court ruled that the country's marriage statutes were in violation of the Constitution's equal rights protections and gave the government one year to amend the legal definition of marriage to include same-sex couples. On Nov. In , same-sex couples in Norway were granted the right to civil unions.
Fifteen years later, the government replaced this ruling with a new law allowing same-sex couples to marry, adopt children, and undergo state-funded artificial insemination.
The law went into effect the first day of In , the Lutheran Church of Norway, to which nearly three quarters of Norwegians belong, adopted gender-neutral wording that would allow its pastors to conduct same-sex marriages. Same-sex couples in Sweden could register for civil unions as early as , but in April the Swedish Parliament voted to legalize same-sex marriage in both religious and civil ceremonies.
Though the law does not require churches to officiate, the Lutheran Church of Sweden voted in October to allow its clergy to conduct same-sex marriages. In June last year, Gabon reversed a law that had criminalised homosexuality and made gay sex punishable with six months in prison and a large fine. Botswana's High Court also ruled in favour of decriminalising homosexuality in Mozambique and the Seychelles have also scrapped anti-homosexuality laws in recent years.
In Trinidad and Tobago, a court in ruled that laws banning gay sex were unconstitutional. But there are countries where existing laws outlawing homosexuality have been tightened, including Nigeria and Uganda.
And in others, efforts to get the laws removed have failed. A court in Singapore dismissed a bid to overturn a law that prohibits gay sex early last year.
In May , the high court in Kenya upheld laws criminalising homosexual acts. Many of the laws criminalising homosexual relations originate from colonial times. And in many places, breaking these laws could be punishable by long prison sentences. Out of the 53 countries in the Commonwealth - a loose association of countries most of them former British colonies - 36 have laws that criminalise homosexuality.
Countries that criminalise homosexuality today also have criminal penalties against women who have sex with women, although the original British laws applied only to men.
The law won approval by a margin in the country's legislature, which included support from former Prime Minister John Key. Source: SBS News. Hollande's signature had to wait until a court challenge brought by the conservative opposition party, the UMP, was resolved.
France's highest court, the Constitutional Council, ruled that the bill was constitutional. Source: The Australian. Northern Ireland and Scotland are semi-autonomous and have separate legislative bodies to decide many domestic issues. In , a judge dismissed two cases on same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland. In addition to allowing same-sex couples to wed, the measure gave churches and other religious groups the option to decide whether or not they want to service same-sex marriages.
The bill was spearheaded by the country's Prime Minister, Xavier Bettel. Bettel married his long-time partner Gauthier Destenay a few months after the legislation passed. Source: Reuters. Thousands of Irish emigrants had traveled home to participate in the popular vote. Although Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark, it was not subject to Denmark's ruling on legalizing same-sex marriage. Source: Copenhagen Post. Same-sex marriage had been legal in 37 out of the 50 US states, plus the District of Columbia, prior to the ruling.
Source: CNN. Same-sex couples were already allowed to form civil partnerships before the ruling. Germany gave full marital rights to homosexual couples in a vote that Chancellor Angela Merkel voted against. Despite opposition from the Catholic Church on the small Mediterranean island, marriage equality was passed by a landslide vote.
Source: The Independent. Same-sex couples were officially allowed to marry beginning January 9, , more than a month after it was legalized in the country. Taiwan, which considers itself an independent democracy that champions human rights issues, passed a bill in favor of marriage equality by an overwhelming margin in The bill allows full legal marriage rights for same-sex couples and also offers limited adoption rights. First Last. Email Confirm Email. I am a UK taxpayer. Please enable Gift Aid on my donation.
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