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Switzerland: Council of States clears the way for same-sex marriage

2020-12-01T23:38:05.408Z


The National Council had already allowed same-sex marriage. Now the change in the law could soon come into force - even without a change in the constitution. The Council of States did not consider this to be necessary.


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Same-sex couple at Christopher Street Day in Zurich (archive image)

Photo: Alessandro Della Bella / AP

Lesbian and gay couples in Switzerland can be happy: after the National Council, the Council of States paved the way for marriage for same-sex couples.

The Swiss media report unanimously.

The Chamber of Parliament, in which the Swiss cantons are represented, clearly approved the marriage for everyone with 22 to 15 votes.

Seven MPs abstained.

The Council of States had previously voted on a demand that a constitutional amendment would have been necessary for the introduction.

With a narrow majority of 22 to 20 votes, the vote was against.

Now the National Council has to deal with the matter again - but this step is expected to be more of a formality.

In the summer, the Swiss National Council was the first of the two Swiss parliamentary chambers and one of the last parliaments in Western Europe to vote for marriage for all.

Lesbian women were also allowed to father children by donating sperm.

The latter was particularly controversial for legal reasons.

Some parties, while advocating marriage for everyone, oppose sperm donation motherhood in lesbian marriages.

If a married woman has a child in Switzerland, the presumption of maternity automatically applies - her husband is then automatically considered the father.

It is therefore questionable what rights the wife of a homosexual mother and the biological father of her child have.

Switzerland lags behind in terms of equality

So far, same-sex couples in Switzerland can only enter into a registered partnership.

However, this does not give them the same rights as other couples, for example with regard to naturalization or adoption.

Surveys had shown that the majority of Swiss people are in favor of marriage for all.

In most Western European countries, marriage is already the law for everyone, in Germany since 2017. Since then, every 14th new marriage in Germany has been same-sex.

Almost 33,000 homosexual couples have married since autumn 2017.

Around two thirds of them had previously lived in a registered civil partnership.

However, this is not the first time that Switzerland has lagged behind when it comes to fundamental decisions on equality.

General women's suffrage was only introduced in the 1970s, and in some cantons not until 1990.

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Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2020-12-01

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