This week, Switzerland’s federal government announced that an application for an optional referendum against gay marriage had collected enough valid signatures to clear the way for a vote on the subject. On 18 December 2020, Switzerland’s upper house voted in favour of gay marriage after it was endorsed by a parliamentary majority, clearing the way […]
Swiss parliament decides lesbians should have access to sperm
On 11 June 2020, Switzerland’s parliament voted in favour of gay marriage and allowing lesbian couples to have access to sperm donations. 132 parliamentarians voted in favour of the proposal with 52 voting against it. All of Switzerland’s main political parties voted in favour of allowing lesbians access to sperm with the exception of the […]
Muslim politician in Geneva quits party after voicing differences on gay marriage
Earlier this year, Sabine Tiguemounine, a parliamentarian from the Green Party, made news when she decided to sit in an area of Geneva’s parliament building open to the public, rather than in the main area where parliamentary members normally sit. Earlier in 2019, the canton introduced rules preventing public officials, including members of parliament, showing […]
Swiss gay divorce rate higher than heterosexual
20 Minutes. Since 1 January 2007, gay couples in Switzerland have been able to register their partnerships under Swiss federal law. At a federal level, same sex partnerships are governed by rules known in French as LPart and in German as PartG, rather than by laws covering heterosexual marriage. A number of Swiss cantons offered […]
Swiss bishop (kind of) backs down over gay marriage
In 2014 a Swiss bishop caused a stir when he demanded the resignation of a priest who had married two gay women. Wendelin Buchli, the Catholic priest in the village of Burglen in the canton of Uri, Switzerland was ordered to quit in February 2015 by Vitus Huonder, the highly conservative bishop of Chur, a […]