Source: Time
(BERLIN) — German lawmakers have voted to legalize same-sex marriage in a snap vote only days after Chancellor Angela Merkel changed her longstanding position.
Lawmakers voted 393 for legalizing “marriage for everybody” and 226 against with 4 abstentions.
Merkel herself voted against the measure, but paved the way for Friday’s vote after saying Monday that lawmakers could take up the issue as a “question of conscience” — freeing members of her conservative coalition, which has been against same-sex marriage, to individually vote for it.
Germany has allowed same-sex couples to enter civil partnerships since 2001, but same-sex marriages remain illegal.
Categories: Europe, Germany, Marriage, The Muslim Times