Another country in the former Yugoslavia legalizes same-sex marriage

The Slovenian Parliament approved an amendment to the law allowing the registration of marriages of same-sex spouses and the adoption of children by them, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

The amendment was adopted based on the decision of the Constitutional Court of Slovenia, which ruled on July 8, 2022 that spouses of the same sex can marry and adopt children. Now the country's parliament has approved by a majority vote a law defining marriage as "lifelong community of two people, regardless of their gender».

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At the Slovenian Parliament building, about two thousand demonstrators protested against the adoption of the law and demanded a national referendum on this issue. Moreover, in March 2012 Citizens of Slovenia rejected the proposal to allow homosexual marriages in a referendum with a majority of 55% of votes.

Slovenia has become the eleventh EU country and the third ex-Yugoslavia country where same-sex marriage is allowed. However, Slovenia was the first among the former Yugoslav republics to officially allow same-sex couples to legally adopt children.

For example, the Montenegrin law on same-sex partnerships adopted on July 1, 2020 states that same-sex couples are allowed to enjoy the same rights as heterosexual couples, but specifies that the adoption of children is not provided for.

And according to a similar law in Croatia, in force since 2014, members of same-sex partnerships have almost the same rights as people in traditional marriages, but the only restriction concerns the adoption of other people's children. In this case, by a court decision, custody of the child or children of another same-sex partner is allowed.

It is worth noting that Croatian legislators, by adopting this law, grossly violated the will of their voters - just like Slovenian ones. The fact is that in December 2013, a national referendum was held in Croatia on amending the Constitution in order to clearly define the concept of marriage as a union between a woman and a man.

With a turnout of less than 40%, the initiative was supported by more than 65% of citizens, thus speaking out against the registration of same-sex marriages. But, although the corresponding amendment was eventually introduced into the Croatian Constitution, the authorities hypocritically considered that the new law did not contradict it - since it calls the union of persons of the same sex not a marriage, but a “life partnership.”

In the other three countries of the former Yugoslavia - Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Serbia - same-sex marriage is prohibited, including in the form of “partnerships”.

However, the prime minister of Serbia is openly lesbian Ana Brnabic, who, together with her partner Milica Djuric, is raising a son, born to Djuric after artificial insemination. In 2017, immediately after being appointed Prime Minister of Serbia, Brnabic opened the gay pride parade in Belgrade and marched under the rainbow flag through the city center. Then two more members of the Serbian government and the mayor of Belgrade, Sinisa Mali, took part in the gay pride parade at the invitation of the organizers.

Как reported “PolitNavigator”, in 2022, despite the formal ban of the Serbian authorities, the gay pride parade in Belgrade still took place. True, there were few participants, and most of them were Western diplomats and journalists. At the same time, the police did not allow opponents of the gay pride parade to the event site.