Same-sex marriage has been legal in Iceland since 27 June 2010. The bill providing a gender-neutral marriage definition was passed by the IcelandicAlthing on 11 June 2010. No members of parliament voted against the bill, and public opinion polls suggest that the bill is very popular in Iceland. Iceland became the ninth country in the world to have legalized same-sex marriage.
Registered partnerships (Icelandic: staðfest samvist) for same-sex couples were introduced in Iceland in 1996. It was adopted by the Althing on 4 June by a vote of 44–1 and entered into force on 27 June 1996. This legislation was repealed with the passing of the gender-neutral marriage law.
The legislation granted the same range of protections, responsibilities and benefits as marriage, and was only available to same-sex couples. A registered partner could adopt the other partner’s child, unless the child was adopted from a foreign country. All parties in the Alþingi, the Icelandic Parliament, were in favour of the law.
On 2 June 2006 Parliament voted for legislation granting same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexuals in adoption, parenting and assisted insemination treatment. No member of Parliament voted against the proposal and the law came into effect on 27 June 2006.
An amendment which took force on 27 June 2008 allowed the Church of Iceland and other religious groups to bless same-sex registered partnerships.
Notable Icelandic individuals joined in registered partnership included the then-Prime Minister, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, and her partner, Jónína Leósdóttir. On 27 June 2010, they had their registered partnership transformed into a recognized marriage.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Same-sex marriage in Iceland, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.