Sweden votes in favor of legalizing gay marriage

[kpete]

Source: Reuters

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden will allow homosexuals to legally marry from May this year after parliament on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly in favor of the move.

The change in the law, which currently allows gay couples to register unions but not formal marriage, comes into force on May 1 this year under the timetable set out in the bill.

Scandinavian countries, known for their liberal attitudes toward gays and lesbians, were among the first countries in Europe to grant same-sex partners the same rights as married couples.

Sweden gave same-sex couples the right to form a union via registered partnerships in the mid-nineties and made it legal for them to adopt in 2002.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE5307BC20090401

[pleah]

1. K&R

[Fearless]

2. Do you hear that California??

We're waiting... :banghead:

[Fido Dido]

3. It will happen here. Might take decades, but it will happen

Slavery, civil rights, etc., took time, but at the end we saw the light. Gays should not lose hope. We'll get there soon.

[CBR]

4. Honestly....

I naively assumed that they already had it!

It will happen here soon, I hope!

[ComtesseDeSpair]

23. So did I!!!

I'm a little disappointed that Sweden took this long to legalize it.

[AlbertCat]

28. that Sweden took this long

It's that religious aspect to "marriage".

The "state" should only recognize civil unions...which everyone can get....and marriage being a religious ceremony can be done or not, depending on the couple's preference, in the style they choose. So if you don't like gay marriage....then don't have one... it being a personal choice and not the government's. All that should be needed for and from the "legal" world is a secular union. In this county anyway....because we have separation of church and state.

IMHO of course.

[Bill McBlueState]

32. naw, marriage is a civil arrangement in the US

In every state, you go to a government office and get a marriage license. Whether a religious leader gets involved is entirely up to the couple.

[Tim01]

31. I thought it was already legal there. Go Sweden!

[David__77]

5. 261-22 was the vote.

Wow...

[Blandocyte]

6. Kudos, Sweden

[burning rain]

7. Good news,...

but I hope Sweden will also protect gays if they are attacked by violent religious extremists... I can't really say that has been done for Jews lately, unfortunately.

[imdjh]

27. Was that on the US news? I didn't see it. What's up with that?

It's funny how one can carry a somewhat fixed set of perceptions. It never occurred to me that Sweden had a significant Muslim population, much less that the country tolerated anti-semitic activity and violence. I thought it was probably one of those European countries praised by some for its hate-speech laws and such. I knew that Norway and some other European countries had had some racial ugliness around soccer games, anti-black mostly, but I thought that the commission to stop stupidity had dealt with that.


In Sweden's third largest city, Malmo, where a virulently anti-Israel Muslim community makes up a significant percentage of the 250,000 population, the City Council voted five to four to hold the scheduled Davis Cup match between Israel and Sweden in an empty stadium, behind closed doors.

The losers are tennis players and fans of every nationality. The winners are the "Stop the Match" campaign which prevailed on the council's Socialist-Left majority to quarantine Israelis and Jews behind an apartheid police cordon to protest Israel's actions in the recent Gaza war.

The Malmo travesty comes on the heels of a huge international outcry after Dubai barred Shahar Pe'er from the Barclay Dubai Tennis Tournament in the UAE. Dubbed the apartheid tennis tournament, and threatened with having the games withdrawn from it, Dubai was forced to issue a visa for Andy Ram.

That controversy has had zero impact in Sweden however, as authorities announced that an Israeli tae kwondo delegation, consisting of 45 athletes and five coaches, en route to Trelleborg for the Swedish championship, was told to stay home due to Muslim threats. Not even tae kwondo - Korean for "the art of kicking and punching" - can provide protection from Sweden's supine complicity in leading today's anti-Israel bullies.



Spare us the alleged "public safety" nonsense. The same 7,000 anti-Israel demonstrators in downtown Malmo would have chanted the same slogans and the few dozen who attacked the police vans for the benefit of media coverage would have tossed the same projectiles had the stadium been packed with tennis fans on Saturday.

No the security card was invoked not to protect but to stigmatize Israeli athletes as pariahs.

None of this is about sports. It's about Jews.

FOR DECADES, Sweden has allowed demagogues like Ahmed Rami , whose Radio Islam is a 22-language flagship of Holocaust denial, Jew-hatred and demonization of the State of Israel, to poison the well among the nation's Muslim minority.

Over-the-top vilification anti-Israel rhetoric is a hallmark of a large swathe of the Swedish political establishment.

"Israel is an apartheid state. I think Gaza is comparable to the Warsaw Ghetto... I'm surprised that Israel... can do the exact same things the Nazis did," charged Ingalill Bjartén, the vice-chair for the Social Democratic Women in southern Sweden. "I don't think Israel is a democracy worthy of the name. It's a racist apartheid state," said the Left Party's Hans Linde, calling for a boycott of Israel. A leading Social-Democrat, Urban Ahlin, deputy chair of the Committee of Foreign Affairs, implored Stockholm to encourage the EU to suspend its cooperation agreement with Israel.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1236269377485&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[Union Yes]

8. This gay Scandanavian can only beam with pride.

And I'm normally not the "Pride" type.

In instances like this I simply can't contain it.

The people that I descended from got it right!!

There is a reason people, why the Scandanavian region of the world is simply put the most recession proof region of the world.

Because they spread their wealth out accross their entire economy by paying their workers a living wage or better.

And they care about their gay population!

'Murika could learn alot from the Swedes.

[LuckyLib]

24. And they care about women, children, and workers. Imagine that!

[defendandprotect]

9. Congratulations to Sweden -- wonderful news!!!

[Hope And Change]

10. K & R!

[Vidar]

11. Bravo, Sweden!

[tomm2thumbs]

12. K&R Thanks for posting

The fact that the vote was overwhelmingly in favor is a good sign.

[BlueJazz]

13. You can always tell the Countries that have their Shit together.

[Ian David]

14. And each marriage certificate comes with an alan wrench. n/t

[Bluenorthwest]

19. It took me a minute...

some assembley required, flat box marriage!

[Ohio Joe]

15. Congrats Sweden - K&R - nt

[HamdenRice]

16. Congrats Sweden! nt

[JerseygirlCT]

17. Excellent! nt

[Bluenorthwest]

18. Sweden, a 21st Century Country

Land of the free!
Meanwhile, the United States stumbles around, trying to return to the 19th Century.
They are the future, and we are backwater rednecks.

[Ishoutandscream2]

21. Sadly, you are correct

We have a lot of growing up to do.

[Deep13]

20. Does this mean god has turned Stockholm to salt?

No? Gee, I guess that whole thing is bullshit, then.

[AlbertCat]

29. Yeah....I missed MA and VT sinking into the bowels of the Earth.

As Rachel Maddow points out, during the voting, we get all these dire predictions of how awful it's gonna be when Gay Marriage infects our culture. Then when it passes, none of those hand wringing warnings....happen. They just don't happen.

That's another tragedy about Prop 8. Didn't anyone point out that all those warnings from religionists were bogus because none of that shit has occurred where Gay Marriage is legal?

I'm sure they did, but no one listened.

[MannyGoldstein]

22. Massachusetts Welcomes Sweden To The Club

:toast:

[Fearless]

33. Indeed!

:grouphug:

[NorthCarolina]

25. Why is Europe so much more progressive than the US?

Is it primarily an end result of our MSM dumbing down our citizens? Maybe some regressive gene confined within our borders? Something in our water?

[Deep13]

30. Gridlock

Medium sized countries with a history of monarchy can actually get stuff done. Here the minority can derail much even if their own stuff cannot get passed. Plus, Europe since WW2 has been far less religious than the USA, so their conservative wing is less powerful than ours and less extremist.

[DU9598]

26. IOWA

The Supreme Court will be issuing it's Marriage Equality decision tomorrow. The lower court legalized marriage equality. The Supreme Court has not taken long to issue its decision.

KEEPING FINGERS CROSSED

[Fearless]

35. IOWA!

3 down and 47 to go!

[Zhade]

34. GO SWEDEN! They understand justice and equality!

WOOHOO!