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.