Swiss voted in a referendum to approve same sex marriages. It is now among the last countries in Western Europe to grant full marriage rights and will allow same-sex couples to access sperm banks and adopt children.
The referendum passed with 64.1 % of the vote with more than half of all votes approved in each of the 26 cantons or states.
This will put same sex-sex partners on equal footing with heterosexual couples including facilitating citizenship for the same couples.
The NO campaign against the same-sex marriages was lead by Benjamin Roduit of Christian Democratic Peoples’ party.
Dirty campaigns including exchange of hostile emails and shouting insults against campaigners were experienced.
Switzerland has a population of 8.5 million people but only granted women the right to vote in 1990s. This shows how the conservative the country is.
As at Sep 2021, a total of 16 countries had legally recognized same-sex marriages in Western Europe.
Elsewhere, in Africa only South Africa legally recognizes same-sex marriages since 2006. According to Global Citizen, there are four countries in Africa (South Sudan Mauritania, Nigeria and Somalia) where homosexuality is punishable by death.
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