Estonian parlt passes law enabling gender-neutral marriage

The Estonian parliament on Tuesday passed a law, which enables two persons of legal age to enter into marriage, regardless of their gender. Photo: Madis Veltman

The Estonian parliament on Tuesday passed a law, the adoption of which was tied to a vote of confidence in the government before the second reading, which enables two persons of legal age to enter into marriage, regardless of their gender, from Jan. 1 of next year.

Altogether 55 MPs voted in favor of adopting the government-initiated bill of amendments to the Family Law Act and other related laws, while 34 MPs were against it.

According to the bill, two adults regardless of their gender can enter into marriage. In addition to marriage, there is still the possibility of concluding a registered partnership agreement, registered partners can switch to marriage under simplified procedure. The bill also provides for the adoption of implementing provisions of the Registered Partnership Act.

The bill would clarify the regulation of descent in the Family Law Act in relation to the adoption right of same-sex couples. With marriage equality, same-sex couples will gain the right to jointly adopt children and for one partner to adopt the children of their spouse with the consent of the child's biological parent.

The bill states the principle that a child cannot have any more than two parents. The principle that the rights and obligations related to the child lie primarily with the child's biological parents will be maintained. The mother's female spouse has a filiation relationship with the child if she consents to the mother's in vitro fertilization.

When making changes to the draft for the second reading, the government took into account the proposals of the Center Party parliamentary group in order to more clearly state in all laws the principle that the second parent next to the mother is still primarily the father.

The bill also includes amendments enabling all the rights and obligations stemming from the Registered Partnership Act passed in 2014 to be fully implemented in practice. Pursuant to the bill, the rights and obligations arising directly from the Registered Partnership Act remain unchanged compared to the current law, meaning that a registered partner can only adopt the child of their registered partner.

The draft cleared first reading in the Riigikogu on May 22 and 711 amendment proposals were submitted by the deadline. On June 15, the government decided to tie the bill to a vote of confidence in the government ahead of the second reading, thus also taking over the responsibilities of the leading committee.