Which are the 30 countries in the world where homosexual marriage is legal (7 are from Latin America)

Same-sex marriage, approved by the Chilean Congress this Tuesday, is already recognized in about 30 countries around the world.

Europe, the pioneer

In 1989, Denmark was a pioneer in allowing the first civil unions for homosexual couples.

But they were the Netherlands which, in April 2001, became the first country to legalize same-sex marriage, granting them more rights.

Since then, 16 European countries have followed suit: Belgium, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Iceland, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, Ireland, Finland, Malta, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom and, more recently, Switzerland.

Meanwhile, civil unions remain the only status allowed for same-sex couples in Hungary, Croatia, Greece, Cyprus, Italy and the Czech Republic. In the latter country, the legislative process to allow same-sex couples to marry is underway, but its outcome is uncertain.

Slovenia, which recognizes the civil union, rejected gay marriage in a 2015 referendum.

Estonia became the first ex-Soviet republic to grant civil unions to homosexuals in October 2014.

In Romania, where gay marriage is not allowed, a referendum to enshrine the ban in the Constitution was invalidated in October 2018 due to large abstention.

Progress in America

Canada was the first country in America to legalize same-sex marriage, in June 2005.

In the United States, it was not until June 2015 that the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage across the country, while 14 states out of the 50 prohibited it.

In 2019, the first same-sex marriage in American history (1971) was officially validated after a legal battle spanning nearly half a century. The Minnesota registrar that made the union at the time did not realize that the couple was of the same sex.

In Latin America, marriage for everyone is already legal in six countries: Argentina since July 2010, Uruguay, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador since 2019 and Costa Rica since 2020.

On Chile, where until now a civil union pact for same-sex couples has been in force, after the approval of the bill in Congress on Tuesday, it only remains for it to be signed by the conservative president Sebastián Piñera, who in June decided to accelerate his legislative process.

Mexico City was the first in Latin America to allow same-sex civil unions, in 2007. Then, in 2009, it legalized marriage, which has been gradually allowed in 18 of the 32 Mexican states.

Cuba, faced with the rejection of a part of the population and of the Catholic and Evangelical churches, refused to include gay marriage in its new Constitution approved in 2019. A few months ago, a commission was created on the island to draft a new Code of the Family, which should include gay marriage before it is put to the vote in the National Assembly and then in a national referendum.

Taiwan, the only one in Asia

In Taiwan, Parliament legalized same-sex marriage in 2019, two years after a landmark Constitutional Court ruling.

In Japan, where same-sex marriage is still prohibited, the Sapporo (North) District Court ruled in March 2021 that the non-recognition of same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, something unprecedented.

In the Middle East, whose societies are very repressive, Israel is a timid exception. Although not illegal, gay marriage is not possible in Israel for lack of an institution empowered to declare it, but it is recognized when contracted abroad.

In Oceania, New Zealand legalized gay marriage in 2013. Australia allowed gay marriage in December 2017, by a vote of Parliament.

Exception in Africa

In an African continent where some thirty countries prohibit homosexuality, South Africa stands out, which has legalized gay marriage since 2006.

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