Slovenians
have voted against granting equal rights to same-sex marriages, according to
near-complete results. While Slovenia is among the most liberal ex-socialist
countries, gay rights remain a controversial issue.
Deutsche Welle, 20 December 2015
Preliminary
results show that 63 percent voted against the government's bid to redefine
marriage as a union of two adults, while 37 percent were in favor, the
country's electoral commission said on Sunday.
Only 35.6
percent of registered voters turned out at the polls in the predominantly
Catholic nation of two million people.
Slovenia's
parliament had approved legislation in March defining marriage as a "union
of two" instead of being a "union of a man and a woman,"
effectively granting homosexual couples equal rights to marry and the right to
adopt children.
Following
the decision, a Catholic Church-backed movement calling itself "Children
Are At Stake" quickly gathered the 40,000 signatures necessary to put the question to the public in a referendum for the second time since 2012. The
previous effort to allow same-sex marriage was also rejected.
If the
"no" camp prevails in the final count, then the civil code would be
changed back, although existing legislation, which allows registered civil
partnerships but not the adoption of children, would remain in force.
President
Borut Pahor and Prime Minister Miro Cerar's ruling Modern Center Party (SMC)
support the "yes" camp, saying gay marriage would eliminate
discrimination and grant equal rights to all Slovenians.
Janez
Jansa, the former center-right prime minister from the opposition Slovenian
Democratic Party (SDS), came out against the move.
"Erasing
the gender from the marriage (definition) gives ground to human rights'
violations against our most precious -- our children."
Same sex
marriage has already been legalized in 18 countries around the world, 13 of
them in Europe.
dj/jlw (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)
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