Slovenia legalizes same-sex marriage and adoptions
Slovenia’s Constitutional Court has legalized same-sex marriage and adoptions with immediate effect.
The court made the ruling after finding a law under which only heterosexual partners can marry and same-sex couples cannot adopt children to violate the constitutional ban on discrimination.
Announcing the news on July 8, the court gave the National Assembly six months to amend the law accordingly, but until the law is amended its ruling stands as the law and means that marriage is a union between two persons regardless of gender. It also means same-sex partners living in a civil partnership may adopt a child together under the same conditions as married spouses.
The matter was raised by the court after a constitutional complaint by two same-sex couples who were banned by regular courts from marrying or to qualifying for the list of candidates for adoption.
The court said discrimination against same-sex couples “cannot be justified with the traditional meaning of marriage as a union between a man and a woman, nor with special protection of family.” The decision “does not diminish the importance of traditional marriage as a union of a man and a woman, nor does it change conditions under which persons of the opposite sex marry. All it means is that same-sex partners can now marry just like heterosexual partners can.”
The court used a similar argument for same-sex adoptions as it noted that same-sex couples have already been allowed to adopt each other’s children — and the goal of benefit for children must be pursued on a case-by-case basis and make it possible for same-sex partners to be placed on the list of candidates for adoption.
