Denmark Enacts Marriage Equality!

As I had previously blogged about, the Scandinavian country of Denmark has been planning on joining the rest of the region in enacting marriage equality this summer. On Thursday, the Danish Parliament passed a bill to allow marriages by same-sex couples by a vote of 85 to 24 in the 111 member body called the Folketing.

According to Pink News:

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark, to which 80 percent of the Danish population belongs, will be able to perform marriage ceremonies under the new laws. New rites were written up by ten of the Church’s eleven bishops in a spirit of “good cooperation”, Bishop Kjeld Holm said.

Gay couples will be able to marry in churches of their choice but priests will not be obliged to perform weddings. They would, however, need to help the couple find a priest who would marry them at the church under the new laws.

The bill will go into effect in June 15, 2012. In 1989, Denmark became the first country in the world to offer state recognition of same-sex couples, when their "registered partnerships" law went into effect. By enacting marriage equality, Denmark joins the 10 other countries around the world where the practice is legal: South Africa, Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Canada, Sweden, Belgium, The Netherlands, Iceland and Norway.