Swiss Voters Support Same-Sex Marriage

Switzerland makes it as the last country to legalize same-sex marriage in Western Europe as more than half of the voters approved in each of the country’s 26 states.

On Sunday, in a national referendum, the Associated Press reported that almost two-thirds of the voters supported the measure to legalize same-sex marriage. The measure also allows same-sex couples to adopt unrelated children and married lesbian couples to access sperm donation.

Switzerland is said to have authorized same-sex civil partnership since 2007, but conservative political parties and church associations had argued that same-sex would subvert the traditional family headed by one man and one woman.

Laura Russo, co-president of the Geneva Federation of LGBT Association at a gathering of joyous supporters of the measure made mention that, “This is a historic day for us and for Switzerland, this is a great step forward, something we have been waiting for for years. This initiative was begun in 2013; we had to wait 8 years for the vote to happen – and here, this is a big “Yes”. ”

Keller Suiter also wrote in agreement to the measure, ” with this all couples will in the future be treated equally before the law: all can enter into a civil marriage, with the same rights and obligations”.

However, opponents such as Anna Leimgruber said at a polling station in Geneva that she cast her ballot for “no” because she believed “children would need to have a dad and a mom.”

Switzerland, a country of 8.5 million population becomes the 30th country in the world to adopt same-sex marriage as 64% of its citizens voted in favor of it. Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said the first same-sex marriage would take place in July next week due to administrative and legal procedures.

Source: Ghanaontheglobe.com