Estonia set to become first ex-Soviet state to back same-sex marriage
Silja Oja and her partner settled for a civil union after losing hope they could ever marry in Estonia. Now the couple dares to dream of wedding bells as their tiny Baltic nation looks set to become the first ex-Soviet state to legalise same-sex marriage. “This is very emotional for me, because it’s my country, my state, telling me: ‘we respect you’,” said the 46-year-old communications specialist as she looked back on their 2022 civil union. “We would have liked to get married, but there were no other options, back then there were no promises for marriage equality,” Oja told Openly in the rustic house the couple share in the capital’s medieval old town.
A vote is due early next week, and LGBTQ+ activists hope Estonia’s parliament will back a government bill that would allow gay and lesbian couples to marry and win the same rights as heterosexual couples. “Accepting marriage equality is the last milestone on Estonia’s pathway to a truly open and equal society and European values, shaking off the last shackles of its tragic past of Soviet regime and repressions,” said Vootele Päi, an independent political analyst and former adviser to the interior minister.
The marriage bill follows earlier moves to grant greater rights to LGBTQ+ Estonians, all of which fell short of equality. In 2014, Estonia introduced same-sex civil unions, which did not deliver the same adoption rights and parental recognition that automatically come with marriage. “It’s a second-rate law that makes you feel like a second-class citizen,” Oja said.
Now Oja hopes all that will change – and that the bill teaches Moscow a lesson on where its former states are headed. Estonia’s liberal coalition government is only two months old and has moved swiftly on
