The Maltese parliament on Wednesday voted to allow same-sex couples to marry, three years after passing a law permitting civil partnerships in the overwhelmingly Catholic nation.
Lawmakers gave the bill near-unanimous approval, which represents a major step for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights on the island, which legalized divorce only in 2011 and where abortion is outlawed.
Malta, the EU’s smallest nation, became the bloc’s 15th member to legalize same-sex unions.
The vote was one of Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s first actions following his election victory last month.
“It’s a historic vote. This shows that our democracy and society have reached a level of maturity, and we can now say that we are all equal,” Muscat said after the bill was passed.
“Pledge delivered, future secured,” he later tweeted.
The Catholic Church was solidly opposed to the bill, but gay rights activists hailed the result, rallying outside the prime minister’s office in downtown Valetta.
The facade of the building was lit in rainbow colors with the slogan: “We’ve made history.”
All but one lawmaker supported the new act, which opens the door for same-sex couples to adopt. Previously this was possible only if one person applied rather than as a couple.
Though Malta scores relatively well in European-wide freedom indices, society in the tiny Mediterranean island is still influenced by religion.
A major bone of contention ahead of the vote was a change in legal jargon to replace terms such as husband, wife, mother and father with more gender-neutral phrasing such as partner or parent.
On Tuesday evening, opponents of the measure held a silent vigil outside parliament, but Wednesday’s vote was hailed by many commentators on social media.
“Now I’m proud to be a dad who can tell my boys that whoever they are and whoever they love, they can still call Malta home,” one Twitter user wrote.
Since gay unions were approved in 2014, 141 couples have taken advantage of the partnerships, while 22 others who had gotten married outside the nation registered their unions.
The Netherlands was the first EU nation to legalize same-sex marriage in 2001, with the most recent being Germany on June 30 after a surprising shift on the issue by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Gay marriage has also been approved in Canada and the US, and in four South American nations, although it remains illegal in most of Africa and Asia.
In Taiwan, the Council of Grand Justices on May 24 ruled that the Civil Code, which says an agreement to marry can only be made between a man and a woman, “violated” constitutional guarantees of freedom of marriage and equality.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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