Denmark greenlights church marriages for gays

BY NATASHA BARSOTTI – In an 85 to 24 vote, the Danish parliament cleared the way June 7 for same-sex couples to get married in church ceremonies — instead of blessing ceremonies — as soon as June 15.

According to a Gay Star News report, the country’s prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, of the Social Democrats party (Socialdemokraterne), says on her Facebook page, “Today we allow homosexual couples to enter into marriage on equal footing as everyone else.”

The report also states that couples in civil partnerships will now be granted “married” status.

In 1989, Denmark became the first country to allow registered partnerships for gay couples.

Natasha Barsotti is originally from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. She had high aspirations of representing her country in Olympic Games sprint events, but after a while the firing of the starting gun proved too much for her nerves. So she went off to university instead. Her first professional love has always been journalism. After pursuing a Master of Journalism at UBC , she began freelancing at Xtra West — now Xtra Vancouver — in 2006, becoming a full-time reporter there in 2008.

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