Special Report
These Are the 31 Countries Where Same Sex Marriage Is Officially Legal
May 11, 2020 12:40 pm
It has been almost a year since the first day that gay and lesbian couples in Taiwan, the first legislation legalizing same-sex marriage in any Asian country, could register to marry. Since then, two more countries have changed their laws so allow gay men and women to tie the knot.
While heterosexual couples enjoy the right to marry, adopt children, and receive their partners’ pension benefits after death, homosexual couples in many countries face discrimination in all of these categories.
To compile the countries where same-sex marriage is officially legal, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed dozens of news articles and information from Pew Research Center. Countries where same-sex marriage is legal in only some districts but not nationwide — like in Mexico — are excluded.
To date, only 31 out of the 195 countries in the world have legalized same-sex marriage. While many same-sex couples have no choice but to wait for legalization — some are together for decades before they are finally able to marry — in many countries people who can choose to get married are doing so later in life.
Opposition to legalizing same-sex marriage often comes from religious organizations who claim that it destroys the sanctity of marriage. However, a U.S. study has shown that heterosexual couples divorce at higher rates than homosexual couples, with some states having lower divorce rates than others, and within each state, places where more people are getting divorced.
Click here for the 31 countries where same sex marriage is officially legal.
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