DANISH PARLIAMENT APPROVED EQUAL MARRIAGE LAWS: Church will perform marriage ceremonies under new laws

 

Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt at Copenhagen Pride 2011

The Danish parliament has approved equal marriage laws 85 to 24 today, reports said today.

Members of the sole house of the Folketing approved the gender-neutral marriage legislation today after an opposition amendment creating a separate system of marriage for gay couples under different terminology was rejected yesterday.

The new law is due to come into effect on 15 June this year

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark, to which 80 percent of the Danish population belongs, will be able to perform marriage ceremonies under the new laws. New rites were written up by ten of the Church’s eleven bishops in a spirit of “good cooperation”, Bishop Kjeld Holm said.

Gay couples will be able to marry in churches of their choice but priests will not be obliged to perform weddings. They would, however, need to help the couple find a priest who would marry them at the church under the new laws...¨ HERE

·  Thanks to Pink News,  United Kingdom
·  Thanks to Stephen Gray
·  Thanks to the Parliament of Denmark
·  Thanks to Copenhagen Editors, photo