Estonia Has Legalized Same-Sex Marriage And Adoption In A Win For LGBTQ Rights
The new law will take effect on Jan. 1, 2024
Estonia has legalized same-sex marriage and adoption after a historic vote at its parliament.
Same-sex partnerships have been legal in Estonia since 2016 but only heterosexual couples could get married.
Same-sex couples were also unable to adopt children together; one partner had to adopt the biological child or children of the other partner as a step-parent.
But on Tuesday June 20, Estonia’s parliament voted to amend the law so that two adults can marry “regardless of their gender” and adopt children together.“
“Everyone should have the right to marry the person they love and want to commit to,” Estonia’s first woman prime minister, Kaja Kallas, said in a statement after the vote.
“I’m proud of my country. We’re building a society where everyone’s rights are respected and people can love freely,” Kallas wrote on Twitter.
This made Estonia the first Baltic state and ex-Soviet country to legalize same-sex marriage and adoption.
It is also the second central European country to reach marriage equality, after Slovenia in October 2022.
The new law will go into effect starting January 1, 2024.
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