Switzerland Is On the Verge of Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage
By: Benya Clark
Tags: LGBTQ, Gay Rights, Law, Equality, LGBT

The LGBT community in Switzerland received great news last week. On December 18, the country took a major step towards marriage equality: its parliament voted to legalize same-sex marriage. There’s still one remaining procedural step, but its looking like a virtual certainty that same-sex marriages will soon be legal there.

The Last Remaining Challenge

Under Swiss law, the newly approved same-sex marriage bill can still be challenged through a referendum. If opponents can raise 50,000 signatures within 100 days, the bill will be required to go to such a referendum. Then all Swiss voters will have a chance to vote in favor or against it. However, it only requires a simple majority (over 50% of votes) for the bill to remain in effect.

According to PinkNews, one political party in Switzerland is already attempting to collect the signatures required for a referendum. But, even if they manage to collect all of the signatures, the referendum isn’t expected to have any effect. The latest polls show that 82% of Switzerland’s population supports marriage equality.

So, despite the opponents’ Hail Mary effort, it appears that same-sex marriage will be legal in Switzerland very soon.

A Long Way To Go

Switzerland will be the 30th country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage. It’s certainly a sign of incredible progress — as recently as 20 years ago, same-sex marriage was still illegal everywhere. In the nineties, most people never would have believed that there would be this much change this quickly.

Switzerland will be joining the following 29 countries which already allow same-sex marriage (in the entire country or certain parts of the country): Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay. (Source.)

Within North America, Western Europe, and — most recently — Latin America, we’ve seen a remarkable sea change over the past two decades.

On the other hand, there is still a long way to go before marriage equality is available for everyone in the world. The sad truth is that the vast majority of countries in the world — as well as the vast majority of the world’s population — still have no marriage equality. Even worse, many countries explicitly criminalize homosexuality.

For those of us living in countries with same-sex marriage, the move towards greater equality can sometimes feel like a foregone conclusion. The truth, however, is that many of the world’s largest countries are just as fiercely opposed to gay rights as ever.

Out of the five most populous counties in the world, the United States is the only one with marriage equality. The two largest countries, China and India, have plenty of LGBT activists working extremely hard, but same-sex marriage remains illegal in both of them.

Indonesia and Pakistan, the other two in the top five, don’t seem to have any hope of legalizing same-sex marriage. The LGBT communities in both countries face intense discrimination.

A Time for Celebration

Despite these caveats, Switzerland’s new law is still certainly a cause for celebration. With this vote, the Swiss parliament helped provide freedom, dignity and protection to its citizens.

We can both hope and expect that Switzerland won’t be the last country to legalize same-sex marriage. With each additional country to join the fold, same-sex marriage becomes further normalized. Those countries that continue to ban it will face increasing pressure to join the rest of us in the 21st century.

Congratulations to Switzerland for taking a giant step in the right direction.