Twenty years ago on this day, on April 1, 2001, exactly on the first day that the Netherlands legalized homosexuals marriage as the first country in the world, the mayor of Amsterdam held a wedding ceremony for four couples in the city hall.
"There are two reasons to be happy today," he said to the couple as he sipped his champagne in honor of the occasion. Because you celebrate both your marriage and the right to marry."
Today, same-sex marriage is legal in 28 countries, most of which are 16 countries in Western Europe. In Asia, homosexuality is legal only in the island of Taiwan and in Africa only in South Africa.
"If you had told me 20 years ago that 29 people would get same-sex marriage, I wouldn't have believed it," said Jessica Stern, executive director of the LGBT group Out Right Action International.
However, he believes that the world is too polarized in its acceptance of LGBT people and that homosexuality is still a crime in 70 countries.
Conservative opposition to homosexuals marriage Opposition to homosexuals marriage remains strong. In Guatemala, some members of parliament are proposing a plan to explicitly ban homosexuals marriage.
In Poland, Andrzej Duda, the country's president last year, declared LGBT rights movements "more harmful than communism".
Switzerland will soon become the 17th country in Western Europe to legalize same-sex marriage. The law of this country approved this type of marriage in the past, but this law has not yet been implemented, and by collecting signatures, they will cancel it through a referendum.
Homosexuals marriage is legal in the United States, Canada, and Costa Rica, as well as in the five South American countries of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Uruguay, and in many federal territories of Mexico, as well as overseas in New Zealand and Australia.
Marriage no, civil union yes In some other countries, such as Italy, Greece and the Republic of Europe, same-sex marriage is still not legal, but the government has recognized "civil unions" for homosexuals couples.
But many LGBT rights advocates describe the "civil union" as second-class and pejorative.
Netherlands; The first country in the world In the Netherlands in 2011, more than 18,000 homosexuals were registered, and according to government statistics, about 53% of these marriages were between two women.
Statistics also indicate that every year about 400 homosexuals marriages end in divorce in this country.
This year, on April 1st, the city of Amsterdam will hold a special ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of same-sex marriage in this country, and for some reason, this celebration will be held online.
America; 11 years of waitingIn the United States of America, after the first homosexuals marriage in 2004 in Massachusetts, it took 11 years for the Supreme Court of the country to declare same-sex marriage legal nationwide in 2015.
According to the statistics of the Williams Institute, a think tank based at the UCLA School of Law in Los Angeles, USA, which specializes in LGBT-related research, there are 513,000 homosexuals married couples in the United States in 2020.
The support of American public opinion for this type of marriage is also increasing. Earlier in 2004, only 42% of Americans believed that homosexuals should be legal, and this number increased to 67% last year.
homosexuals in Asia and Africa In Thailand, the same-sex cohabitation bill is under consideration.
In Japan, some local governments recognize same-sex "civil unions," and a court finally ruled that homosexuals marriage should be allowed under the constitution. Gay rights activists hope the ruling will apply to other cases pending in the courts, bolstering their efforts to legalize same-sex marriage.
In 2018, India repealed an old colonial-era law that imposed 10 years in prison for homosexuals, and now some famous people in the country are openly gay. But homosexuals marriage is still illegal, and an event like "civil union" is not recognized by the government for homosexuals couples. But in Africa, where religious and cultural traditions often oppose homosexuality, it appears that no country is going to join South Africa on the issue anytime soon. A similar hypothesis prevails in the area of the region.
Mahshid Yousufi
