ZURICH — Voters in Switzerland overwhelmingly decided on Sunday to legalize same-sex marriage, making the country one of the last in Western Europe to do so.
In addition to opening up the option of marriage to all couples, an amendment to Switzerland’s marriage law that was put to voters in a referendum, and approved, grants lesbian couples access to sperm banks and allows same-sex couples to adopt children.
The marriage laws were amended by the federal government and approved last year by Parliament to grant all couples the same rights.
But opponents seeking to limit marriages to unions between a man and a women collected enough signatures to force a referendum.