Swedish Parliament today voted yes to gender neutral marriages

[Stockholm]

Stockholm - A broad majority in the Swedish parliament on Wednesday approved adoption of same-sex marriage legislation after a six-hour debate.

snip

The proposal was approved by a 261 to 22 vote, with 16 abstentions.

The new legislation is to take effect as of May 1, and replaces the legislation approved in 1995 that allows same-sex couples to form a union in Sweden via registered partnership.

Couples who have registered partnership can keep that status or amend it by an application to the authorities or marry.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=24&art_id=nw20090401170556301C626382

Love finally won and I am proud to be a Swede today.

[Name removed]

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[Starry Messenger]

2. Congratulations, Stockholm.

I envy you living in a country that has become part of the future. Hopefully the USA will be joining this happy trend before we all die of old age.

[biopowertoday]

6. This passages makes me think of how far the USA has to go.

[SurfingScientist]

8. I would not say the US are so far behind...

... just thinking about how few countries in the world currently have gender-neutral marriage, and the ones that do are among those considered as the most progressive ones.
My own country (Germany) only adopted it only a few years ago, and I was actually surprised to read this post - had thought that Sweden had passed that law years ago, too.

Since the US are so pronouncedly federal, diverse, and it's a state law thing, it will probably be a long time before all states allow it - but at least there is hope that a majority of states will come around eventually. If only CA can get their act together for the coming elections...!

Just thought I'd throw in some cheerful words :grouphug:

[ZombieHorde]

3. Great news!

approved by a 261 to 22 vote, with 16 abstentions

Wow, that is awesome.

[madrchsod]

4. i always wanted to go back to the "old country"....but to late now.

i still have kin who live in the same village and have the church records...

actually i want to go back just to drive saab 93s and volvo 544s....

[FreeState]

5. Its past time for the USA to catch up - Congrats to Sweden! n/t

[DarkTirade]

7. The important question ow is... how hard is it to learn to speak swedish?

:)

[Starry Messenger]

9. LOL.

That is a good question. :) I had a Swedish friend in high school who taught me a few words. A lot of Scandanavian influence has crept into English because of Viking invasions of the British Isles. So a lot of it sounds familiar to an English speaker. But I was never very good at languages. It's probably a little easier than Dutch though.

[FreeState]

10. Its harder than spanish - easier than Finish :)

I speak Norwegian - use to be fluent not so much anymore. It took me speaking it every day, all day long, for 1 1/2 years until I felt comfortable with it.

[Tartiflette]

12. Other way round, I reckon

Swedish is actually very easy to pick up - it has a limited vocabulary (approx 1/10 the number of English and French words), and the grammar is logical and straight-forward. Given the similarities in the languages, Germans can pick up Swedish in no time at all, but interestingly, the converse is not true. SNorwegian is a little harder on the tongue than Swedish, though.

Let's not get started on Finnish....

[bluedawg12]

11. Congratulations, it's a good role model.