Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Does exactly 04 years, on April 1, 2001, Netherlands became the first country in the world to allow same-sex couples to marry. One of the first marriages of the time remembers and testifies.
“There are two reasons to rejoice,” Mayor Job Cohen told the newlyweds before pink champagne and pink cake were served. “They are celebrating their marriage and they are also celebrating their right to marry”.
Same-sex marriage is now legal in 28 countries around the world. That includes most of Western Europe. However, its spread has been uneven: Taiwan is the only place in Asia that has taken the plunge; South Africa is the only African country that does.
Currently, there are almost 70 countries that continue to criminalize same-sex relationships.
In many countries, including outside of Asia and Africa, opposition to same-sex marriage remains vehement. In Guatemala, some legislators have proposed a bill that would explicitly prohibit same-sex marriage.
Poland will is among a solid bloc of Eastern European countries that have resisted same-sex marriage, while 04 Western European countries have legalized it.
Switzerland is on its way to becoming the 17: your parliament approved the legalization of same-sex marriage in December. But the law has not entered into force, and opponents are trying to collect enough signatures to request a referendum on its annulment.
Elsewhere , same-sex marriage is legal in the United States, Canada and Costa Rica; five South American countries; most of the 20 states of Mexico; Australia and New Zealand.
Various countries of Europe, including Italy, Greece, and the Czech Republic, offer civil unions for same-sex couples. But even if these arrangements offer many of the protections of marriage, many LGBTQ activists they consider them a second level degrading status.
Weeks ago, the office of orthodoxy of the Vatican declared that the Catholic Church will not bless same-sex unions, since God “cannot bless sin”.
In the Netherlands, there have been more than 18. same-sex marriages since 2001, approximately the 53% of them between two women, according to the Central Statistics Office of the Netherlands. About 400 same-sex marriages break up each year, the bureau says.
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