President of Estonia’s parliament vows to legalise same-sex marriage
Lauri Hussar, the president of Estonia’s parliament, has vowed to introduce legislation legalising same-sex marriage “in two or three weeks”.
If passed, the country would become the first Baltic state to implement such laws. When asked if this could be the case, he told Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT) that more will become clear “in probably four weeks”. “I hope so, because we have the Liberal government, we have the liberal Reform Party, we have the social democrats, and I am myself from the party Estonia 200,” he continued. “We are the only party which has same-sex marriage in our programme.
So, therefore, I think we’re going to do it.” Hussar, who has been President of the Riigikogu since April, also referenced the latest public opinion polls, which he said show “more than 50 percent of Estonians are supporting same-sex marriage.” READ MORE: Lithuania’s ‘gay propaganda’ law looms over fight for same-sex unions “So it is not an issue like it has been six, or seven years ago, the mood has changed,” he added. “And I think the mood has changed also, because of what happened in Ukraine, because the war brought us to the real problems and what is really important for us.
It united us in helping Ukraine and also brought us to the roots of liberal democracy and therefore, I think it brought us to think about what is important for us as a society.” He noted that, despite this, legalising same-sex marriage continues to be divisive among “the church and the conservatives”. “We hope to adopt the law before July” “I want to point out one very interesting thing, that in every society where same-sex marriage has been legalised, it hasn’t been any issues anymore, because the issue has been closed and the society moved
