Gay Marriage Around the World | Pew Rearch Center

Contents:

• WHERE EUROPE STANDS ON GAY MARRIAGE AND CIVIL UNNS
• EASTERN EUROPE WAS ONCE A WORLD LEAR ON GAY RIGHTS. THEN RAN OUT OF SPEGOATS
• WHERE IS GAY MARRIAGE STILL ILLEGAL EUROPE?
• LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE
• MANY BRONS HAVE CHANGED THEIR MDS ON GAY MARRIAGE

WHERE EUROPE STANDS ON GAY MARRIAGE AND CIVIL UNNS

More than 18 years after the Netherlands beme the world’s first untry to legalize same-sex marriage, Northern Ireland has bee the latt European jurisdictn to allow gays and lbians to marry. Sce the first same-sex marriag took place the Netherlands 2001, more than 30 other jurisdictns have enacted laws allowg gays and lbians to marry, mostly Europe and the Ameris. Netherlands2001EuropeFirst untry to legalize same-sex marriage after Parliament passed the law December Zealand 2013Asia-PacificFirst untry the Asia-Pacific regn to allow gays and lbians to 2009EuropeThe law replaced a 1993 statute permtg civil unns.

Slovenia 2022EuropeFirst untry formerly munist Eastern Europe to legalize same-sex Ai 2006Sub-Saharan AiOnly Ain untry where same-sex marriage is legal; several untri on the ntent have passed laws that ban homosexualy recent 2005EuropeBeme the third untry globally to legalize same-sex marriage after a vote s closely divid 2009EuropeGay and lbian upl Swen prevly had been allowed to register for civil unns sce 1995.

EASTERN EUROPE WAS ONCE A WORLD LEAR ON GAY RIGHTS. THEN RAN OUT OF SPEGOATS

1%) st ballots favor of legalizg same-sex marriage a 2021 2019Asia-PacificA urt lg prompted a change the law that ma Taiwan the first jurisdictn Asia to perm gays and lbians to Kgdom 2014EuropeLegal same-sex marriage took effect Northern Ireland 2020, six years after the change England and Wal. But the small hours of April 1, 2001, somethg unprecented happened after the stroke of midnight at Cy Hall, the mayor of Amsterdam married four upl, each of whom happened to be gay, as the Netherlands – havg passed the law the year before – beme the first untry the world to nduct same-sex marriag. In the untry that first legalized gay marriage, the Dutch crown prcs has the right to marry a person of any genr whout givg up her right to the throne, the Prime Mister of the Netherlands said on Tuday.

Hungary’s hardle natnalist ernment passed a new law earlier this month banng ntent that “promot” homosexualy and genr change om beg shared wh children, effectively prohibg any discsn of LGBTQ them schools. In dog so, Orbán has followed the playbook of Poland’s ernment, which has been chippg away at the rights of the LGBTQ muny for a number of years, adoptg discrimatory rhetoric and stokg homophobia.

“There’s a real regrsn happeng many different untri, and rights that had been regnized are now beg challenged, ” said Evelyne Paradis, the executive director of the European branch of the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn (ILGA-Europe).

WHERE IS GAY MARRIAGE STILL ILLEGAL EUROPE?

“It’s not about homosexuals, ’s about the kids and the parents, ” he told reporters, addg that he was a “eedom fighter” durg Hungary’s munist era. “You have plac like Germany, France, Spa where 85% or more say that homosexualy should be accepted by society and then once you’re past the dividg le, on the other si of the former Iron Curta, those numbers beg to fall pretty rapidly and then get even lower as you go to Rsia, ” he said. “When you look at the former Eastern bloc, the untri had a long tradn of really progrsive legislatn towards LGBTQ rights, Poland for stance crimalized homosexualy 1932, which is really, really early, ” Kościańska said.

The term “homosexualy, ” while sometim nsired anachronistic the current era, is the most applible and easily translatable term to e when askg this qutn across societi and languag and has been ed other cross-natnal studi, cludg the World Valu Survey.

Dpe major chang laws and norms surroundg the issue of same-sex marriage and the rights of LGBT people around the world, public opn on the acceptance of homosexualy society remas sharply divid by untry, regn and enomic velopment. Those Wtern Europe and the Ameris are generally more acceptg of homosexualy than are those Eastern Europe, Rsia, Ukrae, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Ai.

LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE

In many natns, there has been an creasg acceptance of homosexualy, cludg the Uned Stat, where 72% say should be accepted, pared wh jt 49% as recently as 2007.

In many of the untri surveyed, there also are differenc on acceptance of homosexualy by age, tn, e and, some stanc, genr – and several s, the differenc are substantial.

For example, some untri, those who are affiliated wh a relig group tend to be ls acceptg of homosexualy than those who are unaffiliated (a group sometim referred to as relig “non”).

MANY BRONS HAVE CHANGED THEIR MDS ON GAY MARRIAGE

For example, Swen, the Netherlands and Germany, all of which have a per-pa gross domtic product over $50, 000, acceptance of homosexualy is among the hight measured across the 34 untri surveyed. The study is a follow-up to a 2013 report that found many of the same patterns as seen today, although there has been an crease acceptance of homosexualy across many of the untri surveyed both years.

Central and Eastern Europeans, however, are more divid on the subject, wh a median of 46% who say homosexualy should be accepted and 44% sayg should not be. But sub-Saharan Ai, the Middle East, Rsia and Ukrae, few say that society should accept homosexualy; only South Ai (54%) and Israel (47%) do more than a quarter hold this view.