A yes that took seven years
In 2015, Slovenia's parliament said yes to marriage equality and the people said no. Only seven years later did the dream come true after all.
On 3 March 2015, the Slovenian National Assembly in Ljubljana voted on a small but momentous change. In the Family Code, marriage would in future no longer be defined as a life partnership of a man and a woman, but as a union of two people. Fifty-one members voted yes, twenty-eight no. At the same time, same-sex couples received the right to adopt children together.
Only a small group protested outside parliament, and the mood in the country seemed favourable. Polls at the time showed a majority in favour of opening marriage. Slovenia was the eleventh EU country and the first former communist country whose parliament passed marriage equality. Congratulations came from all over Europe and the United States.
The joy did not last long. Conservative groups, supported by the Catholic Church, collected enough signatures for a referendum. On 20 December 2015, voters clearly rejected the law. It was not the first defeat: in 2012, a family code with more rights for same-sex couples had already failed at the ballot box. A later partnership law did bring improvements, but marriage and joint adoption remained out of reach.
The turning point finally came not from politics but from the courtroom. In July 2022, Slovenia's Constitutional Court declared the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage and adoption discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional. The ruling took effect immediately. In the autumn, parliament followed suit and enshrined marriage equality in law too.
So Slovenia did become a pioneer among the former communist states after all. But the yes of March 2015 had taken more than seven years to really arrive.