Albania Plans to Legalize Gay Marriages

Albania’s governing Democrats have proposed a law allowing same-sex civil weddings in the small, predominantly Muslim country. An announcement on the government Web site Thursday said the bill “may spark debate” but was needed to stop discrimination against gay couples. Current law only recognizes heterosexual marriages. Prime Minister Sali Berisha said the move followed requests from rights groups. His Democrats, who control 74 of parliament’s 140 seats, are expected to easily pass the law. The former Communist Balkan state, which joined NATO in April, has applied to be considered for joining the European Union. Albania is mostly Muslim with large Orthodox Christian and Roman Catholic minorities. Practicing religion was banned during the 1944-1990 Communist regime.

Read the full story from the Associated Press.

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4 comments

4 Comments so far

  1. Twitted by jamesamills July 30th, 2009 12:45 pm

    [...] This post was Twitted by jamesamills [...]

  2. emoticon July 31st, 2009 5:24 am

    So, okay, I’m moving to Albania…

  3. Ron J July 31st, 2009 7:03 am

    So Albania, of all places, is planning to legalize gay marriage, but the supposedly more civilized country of the United States is still stuck in the stone age on this?

    Scary. At any rate, congrats to the Albania Gays!

  4. Jannis the Greek August 2nd, 2009 6:28 pm

    Better live alone and never married than to get married and live in Albania!
    Stincks
    (before replies about rassism let me tell you that my bf is Albanian…and he feels shame for that -beeing albanian-
    people in Albania are like animals

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