Sweden Legalizes Gay Marriages

Trisha Butterworth
April 3rd

Sweden is not allowing gay marriages, legally. This is now the 7th country to give legal rights to gay marriage. Sweden was the first country to allow gay partnership in the 90’s, and also allowed them to adopt in 2002. The votes were 226 to 2, and will then begin on May 1st, 2009. All but one party in parliament backed this bill, with Christian democrats being the one party to vote against it. The largest church in Sweden, The Lutheran, will bless the partnerships of gay couples that occurred since January 2007. Although they will bless them, they are not going to call them marriages, and they are not forcing any of their pastors to fulfill this, or any marriage ceremonials.
I think it is great that some countries are finally giving gay couples legal rights. I do not think it is fair in any way that they cannot be married or have legal rights. I just don’t understand why it is such a big deal, and why they cannot just let people be. The thing is, whether they have legal rights or not, people are gay, and they are going to be in a relationship with the same sex whether anyone else likes it or not. I hope that this will add to an upward trend of more legalization to gay marriages. More states in the US need to start legalizing it. I also hope that something doesn’t change, and Sweden’s legalization does not go through, or is changed back to just partnerships.