Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva announced on Monday that he will ratify legislation providing for same-sex marriage.
The legislation was passed with limited public controversy in January in what has traditionally been one of Europe's most socially conservative countries.
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After less than three hours' debate, the bill proposed by Prime Minister Jose Socrates was passed by 123 votes to 99, with the Opposition voting against it.
The new law removes the previous legal stipulation that marriage is between two people of different sexes.
Socrates said the aim of the legislation was to remedy decades of injustice towards gays, recalling that as recently as 1982 homosexuality was a crime in Portugal.
"I am of a generation - as we all are - which is not proud of the way it treated homosexuals," the prime minister said before lawmakers in parliament.
"This is a step that will seem completely natural in the near future, in the same way that gender equality, abortion rights and unmarried couples living together are normal now.
"Gay marriage has been approved by numerous countries and will be approved by many more. I have no doubt about that."
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The main opposition Social Democratic Party proposed granting 'civil unions' in lieu of equal marriage, but its bill was voted down.
In contrast to Spain, where the run-up to the legalisation of gay marriage in 2005 brought hundreds of thousands of demonstrators onto the streets, the bill in Portugal provoked only muted opposition even from the political right.
While normally vocal, the Catholic Church refused to mobilise on the issue, which Lisbon's Cardinal Patriarch Jose Policarpo said was "parliament's responsibility".
It is believed the Portuguese head of state chose not to announce his decision to approve the new law until after a papal visit in which Pope Benedict XVI had described same-sex marriages as "insidious and dangerous".
The reform makes Portugal the sixth nation in Europe to allow same-sex couples to marry, along with South Africa and Canada.
Additionally five states in the USA provide equal marriage as well as the District of Columbia (Washington DC) and the state of Mexico City, Mexico.
On 6 May the Argentinian Chamber of Deputies (Lower House) passed a bill to legalise equal marriage with a 129-105 vote. The Senate has yet to consider the issue but the president has stated she will support the bill if passed.
Other countries expected to legislate in favour of equality this year include Slovenia, Luxembourg, Lichtenstein and Nepal.
Click here for more information on countries which provide equal marriage.