Estonia becomes first Baltic nation to legalise same-sex marriage

Category : International Published on: June 23 2023

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Estonia's parliament passed a law legalizing same-sex marriage, making it the first Central European nation (Baltic nation) to do so.
The bill received 55 votes in the 101-seat parliament, from the coalition of liberal and social democratic parties which Kallas has assembled following her strong win in the 2023 election. The law will come into effect from 2024.
Latvia and Lithuania, the other two Baltic countries which were previously annexed by the Soviet Union, have same-sex partnership bills stuck in their parliaments.
Same-sex marriage is legal in much of Western Europe but not in central European countries which were once under communist rule and members of the Moscow-led Warsaw Pact alliance but now members of NATO and, largely, the EU.