Same-sex Marriage in Norway - Same-sex Marriage

Same-sex Marriage

A bill was proposed on November 18, 2004 by two MPs from the Socialist Left Party to abolish the existing registered partnership laws, and make marriage laws gender neutral. The move was withdrawn and replaced by a request that the cabinet further investigate the issue. The Conservative cabinet of that time did not look into the issue. However, the Stoltenberg's Second Cabinet announced a common, unified marriage act as part of its foundation document, the First Declaration of Soria Moria. A public hearing was opened on May 16, 2007.

On May 29, 2008, the Associated Press reported that two Norwegian opposition parties (The Liberal Party and The Conservative Party) came out in favour of the new bill, assuring its passage at the vote on June 11, 2008. Prior to this, there were some disagreements with members of the three-party governing coalition on whether the bill had enough votes to pass.

The first parliamentary hearing, including the vote, was held on June 11, 2008, with the lower house approving by 84 votes to 41 a bill that allowed same-sex couples to marry. This came after the Norwegian government proposed a marriage law on March 14, 2008, that would give lesbian and gay couples the same rights as heterosexuals, including church weddings (although the law does not oblige any religious community to marry same-sex couples), full joint adoption and assisted pregnancies. The new legislation amended the definition of civil marriage to make it gender neutral. Norway's upper house passed the bill with a 23–17 vote on June 17. The King of Norway, Harald V, granted royal assent thereafter. The law took effect on January 1, 2009.

In addition to providing a gender-neutral definition of marriage, the bill states that when a woman who is married to another woman becomes pregnant through artificial insemination, the other partner will have all the rights of parenthood "from the moment of conception".