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Norwegian Finance
Minister, Kristin Halvorsen, outside the Storting in
Oslo, celebrating the passing of the new law. Photo: Getty Images
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Norway's upper house voted today in favour of equal marriage by 23 votes to 17 after the country's lower house voted 84-41 for gender neutral legislation in parliament last week.
The new legislation becomes effective 1 January 2009. It replaces a 1993 law that supported registered partnerships, a second-class status that was increasingly unacceptable in a civil society. Same-sex couples who have previously registered their partnership will be able to convert the partnership into marriage.
"We are so overjoyed. We have worked for this for so long," said Jon Reidar Oeyan, leader of the Norwegian National Association of Lesbian and Gay Liberation, in an AP report today. "Now we are going to celebrate. I didn't dare until I heard the chairman of the upper house bang the hammer."
UPI reported on 13 June that the public gallery of the Storting, as Norway's parliament is known, erupted in cheers and applause as elected members brought down the barriers to same-sex marriage.
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| David Kolstad and
Andre Oktay Dahl, pictured outside the Storting,
intend marrying early in the new year. Photo: Ingar Storf |
A majority of the state's Evangelical Lutheran Church also supports the legislation. Last year the Church lifted a ban barring gays living in partnerships from serving in the clergy. According to Religion News Service (12 June), 85 percent of Norway's 4.7 million people are registered with the church. The church is currently working on a new liturgy to support same-sex couples seeking a religious marriage, beginning next year.
Norway is the first country in Scandinavia to achieve this new benchmark of human rights: equal marriage for same-sex couples. It is the sixth country in the world to legalise marriage for same-sex couples after the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Canada and South Africa.
Massachusetts and California have opened marriage for same-sex couples in the USA, and Israel will register same-sex marriages legally performed outside the country.
Congratulations to the couples, their families and friends, advocates, lawyers, politicians, clergy and volunteers who helped achieve equal marriage in Norway. The country now stands as a benchmark for others in the region. We anticipate their neighbours will soon follow.