BY NOREEN FAGAN – Countries
around the world seem to be giving in to the idea that allowing same-sex marriage may
not be the end of the world.
On Oct 25, Brazil’s top court ruled that same-sex couples
are allowed to legally marry. In May 2011, Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled that civil
unions should be recognized but stopped short at extending full marriage
benefits to homosexual couples.
After the ruling, several couples petitioned to have
their civil unions recognized as full marriages. Some of the petitions were approved by the
lower courts; others were not.
According to AP, the Supreme Appeals Court ruled in a 4-1
vote that the Constitution “makes it possible for stable civil unions to become
marriages.”
Now Denmark is poised to become the eighth country in Europe
to give gays and lesbians full marital rights.
In 2012 the government will introduce a bill that will allow
gays to get married in the Church of Denmark. The coalition government’s church
minister, Manu Sareen, proposed the marriage deal.
Sareen says he is looking forward to the “moment when the
first homosexual couple steps out of the church. I’ll be standing out there
throwing rice.”
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