Same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriage is legally recognized in a large majority of the world's developed countries; notable exceptions are Italy, Japan, South Korea and the Czech Republic.

Other countries have constitutionally mandated Islamic law, which is generally interpreted as prohibiting marriage between same-sex couples.

[8][9] The first law providing for marriage equality between same-sex and opposite-sex couples was passed in the continental Netherlands in 2000 and took effect on 1 April 2001.

[34][35] Anthropologists have struggled to determine a definition of marriage that absorbs commonalities of the social construct across cultures around the world.

[36][37] Many proposed definitions have been criticized for failing to recognize the existence of same-sex marriage in some cultures, including those of more than 30 African peoples, such as the Kikuyu and Nuer.

[37][38][39] With several countries revising their marriage laws to recognize same-sex couples in the 21st century, all major English dictionaries have revised their definition of the word marriage to either drop gender specifications or supplement them with secondary definitions to include gender-neutral language or explicit recognition of same-sex unions.

"[43] A few scholars believe that in the early Roman Empire some male couples were celebrating traditional marriage rites in the presence of friends.

Same-sex marriage is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries: Andorra, Argentina, Australia,[a] Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark,[b] Ecuador,[c] Estonia, Finland, France,[d] Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico,[e] the Netherlands,[f] New Zealand,[g] Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Kingdom,[h] the United States,[i] and Uruguay.

[71][72] In response to the international spread of same-sex marriage, a number of countries have enacted preventative constitutional bans, with the most recent being Mali in 2023, and Gabon in 2024.

However, the ECHR stated in Schalk and Kopf v Austria that this provision was intended to limit marriage to heterosexual relationships, as it used the term "men and women" instead of "everyone".

[77] In 2021, the court ruled in Fedotova and Others v. Russia—followed by later judgements concerning other member states—that countries must provide some sort of legal recognition to same-sex couples, although not necessarily marriage.

The Court recommended that governments issue temporary decrees recognizing same-sex marriage until new legislation is brought in.

As of 17 February 2025, countries that have an alternative form of legal recognition other than marriage on a national level are: Bolivia, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Monaco, Montenegro and San Marino.

Additionally, various cities and counties in Cambodia and Japan offer same-sex couples varying levels of benefits, which include hospital visitation rights and others.

Additionally, nineteen countries that have legally recognized same-sex marriage also have an alternative form of recognition for same-sex couples, usually available to heterosexual couples as well: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Greece, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom and Uruguay.

[87][88][89][90] They are also available in parts of the United States (Arizona,[k] California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, Nevada and Oregon) and Canada.

[91][92] Female same-sex marriage is practiced among the Gikuyu, Nandi, Kamba, Kipsigis, and to a lesser extent neighboring peoples.

The American Anthropological Association stated on 26 February 2004:The results of more than a century of anthropological research on households, kinship relationships, and families, across cultures and through time, provide no support whatsoever for the view that either civilization or viable social orders depend upon marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution.

[95][vague] The overall socio-economic and health effects of legal access to same-sex marriage around the world have been summarized by Badgett and co-authors.

[96] The review found that sexual minority individuals took-up legal marriage when it became available to them (but at lower rates than different-sex couples).

In addition, the study found mixed evidence on a range of downstream social outcomes such as attitudes toward LGBTQ+ people and employment choices of sexual minorities.

[103][104] While few societies have recognized same-sex unions as marriages,[needs update] the historical and anthropological record reveals a large range of attitudes towards same-sex unions ranging from praise, through full acceptance and integration, sympathetic toleration, indifference, prohibition and discrimination, to persecution and physical annihilation.

Some additional states do not recognize same-sex marriage but allow stepchild adoption by couples in civil unions, namely the Czech Republic and San Marino.

[citation needed] In any legal jurisdiction where marriages are defined without distinction of a requirement of a male and female, these complications do not occur.

Such people are then free to enter or re-enter civil partnerships or marriages in accordance with their newly recognized gender identity.

In Austria, a similar provision requiring transsexual people to divorce before having their legal sex marker corrected was found to be unconstitutional in 2006.

Support for same-sex marriage has increased across every age group, political ideology, religion, gender, race and region of various developed countries in the world.

[127][128][129][130][131][needs update] Various detailed polls and studies on same-sex marriage that were conducted in several countries show that support for same-sex marriage significantly increases with higher levels of education and is also significantly stronger among younger generations, with a clear trend of continually increasing support.