DENMARK LEGALISES GAY MARRIAGE Thu, 7 June 2012Denmark has
become the 11th country in the world to give same-sex couples
equal marriage rights, including the option to marry in church.
On Thursday, the country's Parliament voted 85-24 in favour of
changing the nation's marriage laws to be gender neutral. Gay
and lesbian couples will be able to marry at a city hall or
through the Church of Denmark by a priest who agrees to
officiate the ceremony. Religious institutions, however, are not
obligated to conduct same-sex marriages. "Today we allow
homosexual couples to enter into marriage on equal footing as
everyone else – something that Socialdemokraterne [Denmark's
Social Democratic party] has fought for many years," Prime
Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt wrote on her Facebook page after
the law was passed. Denmark was the first country in the world
to legalise same-sex unions in 1989. Those currently in civil
unions will automatically be recognised as married under the new
law when it comes into effect on 15 Jun