Norvegia: approvata una legge sui matrimoni omosessuali (11 giugno 2008)
Norway Becomes Sixth Country to Permit Gay Marriage
On 11th June 2008 members of Norway’s parliament approved a bill that will allow same-sex couples to wed in civil marriages. The new law, which passed 84–41, requires that the terminology in marriage documents be gender-neutral.
The Scandinavian country already allows gay and lesbian couples to enter into civil partnerships, but LGBT rights groups had long complained the law does not go far enough. A 1993 law gave gay and lesbian couples the right to enter into civil unions, similar to marriage, but they could not be wed in church or adopt children. The new law allows adoption and permits lesbians to be artificially inseminated and gives gays the right to enter civil unions similar to marriage, but refuses them the right to church weddings or to be considered as adoptive parents. The most controversial part of the law is that which gives lesbians the right to be artificially inseminated. The sperm donor must be identified so that the child can seek out his or her biological father at the age of 18. Health care workers who do not want to perform artificial inseminations on lesbians because of their personal convictions will not be under any obligation to carry out the procedure.
The new law is expected to enter into force at the end of this year or early next year.
In 2004 a similar law, which proposed to abolish the system of civil partnerships and replace it with one single gender neutral marriage law for all citizens, was rejected by the Norwegian parliament.
Norway becomes the sixth country to allow gay marriage, joining Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Canada in legislating full marriage equality. Homosexuality was illegal until 1972 in Norway, a country which has since become one of the most liberal in the world in the field.
(Fonti: The Advocate – AFP)
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