Estonia Becomes The First Central European Country To Allow Similar Marriages

JAKARTA - Estonia became the first central European country to legalize same-sex marriage, after the country's parliament approved legislation on Tuesday.

Same-sex marriage is legal in most Western Europe, but not in central European countries that were once under communist rule and a member of the Russian-led Warsaw Pact alliance, but are now members of NATO and most of the European Union.

"My message (to central Europe) is, it's a difficult struggle but marriage and love are something you should promote," Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told Reuters after the vote.

"We have grown rapidly in these 30 years, since we freed ourselves from Soviet occupation. We are equal among countries of the same value," he added.

The bill received 55 votes in parliament with 101 seats, from a coalition of liberal and social democrat parties formed by PM Kallas after his 2023 election victory. The law will take effect from 2024.

It is known, the majority of Estonia's 1.3 million population is secular, with 53 percent of the population supporting same-sex marriage in polls conducted by the Center for Human Rights in 2023. In comparison, a decade ago, the number was only 34 percent.

Nevertheless, 38 percent of Estonians still consider homosexuality unacceptable. Same-sex marriage is opposed by the ethnic Russian minority, which is a quarter of the country's population, and only 40 percent of them are supportive.

According to the local government, gays in Estonia tend to keep their identities a secret and half of them have recently been abused.

"This is a good opportunity for the government, because public opinion about same-sex marriage has turned positive, and after this year's general election, the government has enough votes to address conservative opposition," said Chief of Studies at the Tomas Center for International Defense and Security. Jermalavicius.

Latvia and Lithuania, two other Baltic countries previously annexed by the Soviet Union, have draft same-sex marriage laws held back in their parliament.