New Delhi : The Supreme Court has said that the sexual nature of a person is innate and not urban or elite. The apex court’s observation refutes the central government’s contention that same-sex marriage is “only an urban elitist approach for the purpose of social acceptance”. Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said, “Once something is innate, it cannot have any class bias.” The Supreme Court went a step further and indicated that there was not enough data available to call same-sex marriage an elitist concept.
The top court later also said that “by decriminalizing homosexuality, we have already reached an intermediate stage and now it can be thought that gay people can also live in a stable relationship like marriage.” The top court was hearing petitions challenging certain provisions of the Hindu Marriage Act, Foreign Marriage Act, Special Marriage Act and other marriage laws as unconstitutional on the ground that they deny same-sex couples the right to marry. We do.
34 countries in the world have legalized same-sex marriages. The Netherlands was the first country to recognize marriage equality. The landmark bill was passed by the Dutch Parliament by a three-to-one margin in 2000, and the law became effective on 1 April 2001. This law gave same-sex couples the right to marry, divorce and adopt children. According to Dutch law, “Marriage may be contracted by two people of different or same sex.” Same-sex marriage is widely accepted in the Netherlands, despite opposition to the law by Muslim and conservative Christian groups.
The first same-sex marriage to be legalized in modern times took place in 1971 in the US state of Minnesota. But the US legalized same-sex marriage in 2015 when its Supreme Court ruled that the constitution guarantees it nationwide. Even before the court’s ruling, 36 US states and the District of Columbia had legalized marriage equality.
Same-sex marriage is currently legal in at least 34 countries (which account for 17 percent of the world’s population). These countries are- Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand , Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK, USA and Uruguay.
Of these, three countries have legalized marriage equality only last year. Andorra became the most recent country to do so in July 2022. Andorra’s legislature voted unanimously to amend the country’s Civil Union Law to include marriage equality for same-sex couples. Cuba recognized it after a national referendum. Slovenia’s constitutional court ruled that a ban on same-sex marriage violated the country’s constitution and gave the Slovenian parliament six months to pass legislation accordingly.
Twenty-three countries have legislated to legalize same-sex marriage at the national level. Among these, Australia, Ireland and Switzerland did so after holding national level polls. Ten countries have legalized same-sex marriage at the national level through court rulings. Among these, Austria, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico and Slovenia later enacted national laws through legislature. At the same time, same-sex marriage is recognized in South Africa, Taiwan and America only on the basis of court decision.
Many studies indicate that getting married improves the financial, psychological and physical status of same-sex couples and the children of such parents are brought up in a safe environment and also get social and legal recognition. On the contrary, denial of such a provision leads to stigmatization of such people and their families and general discrimination against them.
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