Marriage becomes gender-neutral
Marriage equality comes into force: in 2009, Sweden becomes the seventh country in the world to open marriage to same-sex couples.
On 1 May 2009, the first same-sex couples in Sweden officially said yes to marriage. That day, the new gender-neutral marriage law came into force. Whether two men, two women or a man and a woman said "I do" no longer made any difference to marriage law from then on.
The road there was both short and long. Since 1995, same-sex couples in Sweden had been able to enter a registered partnership. Legally, it came very close to marriage. But many felt it was discrimination that the same thing carried a different name. A government inquiry recommended opening marriage in 2007. In the spring of 2009, the Riksdag followed by an overwhelming majority. Only the Christian Democrats opposed it, of all things a partner in the governing coalition.
Sweden thus became the seventh country in the world with marriage equality, after the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa and Norway. New partnerships were no longer registered from then on. Those already registered could have their partnership converted into a marriage or simply carry on as before.
Among the first couples at Stockholm City Hall were two local politicians from Uppsala. They had met online nine years earlier. They were married by Maria Wetterstrand, co-spokesperson of the Greens.
There was no great rush that Friday, however. One reason lay with the church. Many couples wanted a wedding at the altar, but the Lutheran Church of Sweden had not yet decided whether it would take part. The law expressly allowed individual clergy to refuse such weddings. In the autumn of the same year, the church assembly finally gave the green light. Since then, same-sex couples in Sweden have also been able to marry in church.