Gay Marriage in Europe

A spotlight on a pressing societal issue in Europe that somehow is still not resolved.

• In 2001, the ​​Netherlands became the first country in the world to legally recognise same-sex marriage.
• A 2015 non-binding ruling by the European court of human rights that Italy must provide legal recognition of same-sex couples set a precedent for the rest of Europe.
• Half of the continent at the time did not have any legal provisions for same-sex couples, but some considerable progress has been made since in a number of countries.
• Same-sex marriage in Spain has been legal since 2005, while England and Wales legalised such unions in 2014, and Germany followed suit in 2017.
• In Switzerland, things are moving a bit slow. Gay couples there will be able to get married from 1 July, 2022.
• But in Romania for instance, a referendum seeking to restrict the definition of marriage to a contract between a man and a woman failed in 2018.
• This reading rounds up five articles on an issue that never stays out of the headlines for a long period.