Cuba joins list of countries that allow same-sex marriages
Cuba
About two-thirds of the population of Cuba voted to approve reforms in a new Family Code on 27 September. The law is significant for a country that has a history of persecuting gay people and sending them to work camps.
Switzerland
Finding the support of 64 per cent of voters, Switzerland legalised same-sex marriages in 2021. Even though Switzerland had allowed same-sex couples to register their partnerships since 2007, some rights were restricted.
Chile
Through a referendum backed by President Sebastian Piñera, Chile approved marriage equality for same-sex couples last year in December. The country became the eighth Latin American country to allow same-sex marriages.
Ecuador
In 2019, Ecuador’s apex court passed an order to recognise same-sex marriages. The country had legally recognised same-sex unions since 2015, with legislation that granted gay couples the same rights enjoyed by opposite-sex ones, except adoption.
Taiwan
Taiwan became the first Asian country to allow same-sex marriages in 2019. The order came almost two years after an existing law – which said that marriages can only take place between a man and a woman – was declared unconstitutional.
United States of America
After a case was brought up in the Supreme Court in 2015 by groups of same-sex couples who sued state agencies in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, the apex court made same-sex marriages legal across the country.