May 24 marked the first day that gay and lesbian couples in Taiwan can register to marry. Countries where same-sex marriage is legal in some areas but not nationwide were excluded. To date, only 29 out of the countries in the world have legalized same-sex marriage. While many same-sex couples have no choice but to wait for legalization β some are together for decades before they are finally able to marry β in many countries, people who can choose to get married are doing so later in life.
Opposition to legalizing same-sex marriage often comes from religious organizations who claim that it destroys the sanctity of marriage. Change came gradually in the Netherlands β the first country to legalize same-sex marriage. In many of the marriage-related privileges allowed to heterosexual couples were extended to same-sex couples. Then in December , despite opposition from the country's Christian Democratic Party, legislation passed that expanded the definition of marriage to include people of the same sex.
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This allowed same-sex couples to marry, divorce, and adopt children. Finally on April 1, , four same-sex couples married, followed by another that month. Same-sex couples in Belgium began receiving recognition through registered partnerships in , but it wasn't until that Parliament legalized same-sex marriage.
This gave same-sex couples in Belgium the right to marry β which granted them the tax rights that heterosexual couples already enjoyed β and also officially recognized the status of same-sex couples who married in other countries. In same-sex couples were given the right to adopt children.
Despite strong opposition from conservative leaders and the Roman Catholic Church, the Spanish Parliament legalized same-sex marriage in a vote of to This granted same-sex couples inheritance, adoption, and divorce rights. The country's Socialist Prime Minister at the time, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, proposed the bill shortly after his election in Although the federal government of Canada extended common law marriage rights to same-sex couples in , it wasn't until that the Canadian Parliament legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
