Monday July 24, 2006
Slovenia Legalizes Same-Sex "Marriage"
By Peter J. Smith
SLOVENIA, July 24, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The former member of the Yugoslavian Republic, now member of the EU, Slovenia, yesterday legalized same-sex “marriage.”
According to B92 radio in Belgrade, Serbia, the new Slovenian marriage
laws allow homosexual couples to register their partnerships as a legal
“marriage,” enjoying the same rights as married heterosexual couples
under Slovenian law.
However, the new law does put restrictions on the “weddings” of
homosexual couples. The law limits the attendance of “wedding”
ceremonies to the two partners and the local registration official,
forbidding any third parties. The law requires all ceremonies to take
place in an official state office, and requires same-sex couples give
30 days advance notice and documentation verifying sanity, health, and
unmarried status.
Ever since homosexual acts were decriminalized in 1977, homosexual
activists have pushed to normalize homosexual behavior in Slovenian
society. Despite a 1995 poll showing 57% of Slovenians opposed to “gay
marriage”, however, Vera Kozmik, the head of the government’s Bureau
for Women’s Politics, predicted on the National Television program
“Tednik” (“Weekly”) that Slovenia would have same-sex “marriage” in 2
years.
Although two initiatives for homosexual “marriage” were defeated twice
previously in 1993 and 1995, the government appointed a commission in
1998 to study the matter, which led to limited recognition of
homosexual unions in 2004, the same year the nation joined the European
Union.
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