{"id":11532,"date":"2015-05-29T18:16:20","date_gmt":"2015-05-29T10:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/?p=11532"},"modified":"2026-03-08T01:26:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T00:26:50","slug":"brief-history-marriage-equality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/brief-history-marriage-equality\/","title":{"rendered":"A Brief History of Marriage Equality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What a way to usher in Pride Month! In the same week, Greenland\u2019s parliament passed marriage equality unopposed, and in a historic vote, Ireland (yes, very Catholic Ireland) was the first country to legalize gay marriage by popular vote. This from a country that only legalized homosexuality in 1993! The marriage equality movement has picked up such steam and accomplished so much, it\u2019s almost hard to believe it\u2019s only been 30 years in the making.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Leaders of the Pack<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>There are currently 21 countries in the world where gay marriage is recognized nationwide. The first was the Netherlands in the year 2000, with Belgium, Canada, Spain, South Africa, Norway and Sweden to follow before 2010.<\/p>\n<p>In the past 5 years, Argentina, Iceland, Portugal, Denmark, Brazil, Great Britain, France, New Zealand, Uruguay, Luxembourg, and Finland also legalized gay marriage, or some equal form of marriage.In other countries, such as Mexico, gay-marriage is recognized in some states but not nation-wide.<\/p>\n<p>Scotland, as it happens, was recently named the nicest place in EU to be gay by ILBGA -Europe, which measured statistics regarding hate crimes as well as the recognition of and rights afforded to trans* and intersex people.<\/p>\n<h2>On the Home Front<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s been a while since \u2018going to Connecticut\u2019 was the only way for American LGBTQ couples to get married, but that doesn\u2019t mean all is well. While currently legal in 37 of the American states (and a 2013 Supreme Court ruling that the federal government will recognize marriages from abroad), the Alabama Supreme Court told judges to stop issuing marriage licenses in March of this year. Florida Senator Marco Rubio has also spoken out this May against gay marriage as a \u2018real and present danger\u2019 to Christianity. However, the Supreme Court is expected to rule next month on marriage equality, which could legalize it nation-wide.<\/p>\n<h2>Still Far to Go<\/h2>\n<p>Unfortunately, we are not exclusively watching forward progress for LGBTQ rights. Russia is perhaps most well-known right now for its law punishing people it judges are spreading &#8220;propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations among minors expressed in distribution of information\u2026 aimed at the formation\u2026 of \u2026misperceptions of the social equivalence of traditional and non-traditional sexual relations.&#8221; This has meant people can be punished for publishing anything that refers to homosexuality in a positive light. In parts of the Caribbean, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, marriage equality is something that is not even in focus, as simply being gay can be punished by over 14 years in prison, or even the death penalty.<\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>The fight for marriage equality touches so many more aspects of life than the ability to have a marriage certificate. The ability to adopt, list your partner as next of kin, or even have all of your family on one health insurance are all part of the larger issue at hand. We hope to be able to celebrate <a href=\"https:\/\/mobile.twitter.com\/search?q=%23MarriageEquaility&amp;src=tyah\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#marriageequality<\/a> trending many more times in the near future.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Enjoy 15% off <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LELO.com<\/a> with code <span style=\"color: #800080;\">VOLONTE15<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What a way to usher in Pride Month! In the same week, Greenland\u2019s parliament passed marriage equality unopposed, and in a historic vote, Ireland (yes, very Catholic Ireland) was the first country to legalize gay marriage by popular vote. This from a country that only legalized homosexuality in 1993! The marriage equality movement has picked up such steam and accomplished so much, it\u2019s almost hard to believe it\u2019s only been 30 years in the making. Leaders of the Pack There [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":11533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[925,929],"tags":[313,764,567],"coauthors":[950],"class_list":["post-11532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-committed","category-sexual-wellness","tag-history","tag-lgbtq","tag-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.8.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Gay Marriage in Ireland, Greenland, and More<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With #marriageequality trending this week in Ireland and Greenland, we take a brief look at gay marriage rights across the world.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/brief-history-marriage-equality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gay Marriage in Ireland, Greenland, and More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With #marriageequality trending this week in Ireland and Greenland, we take a brief look at gay marriage rights across the world.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/brief-history-marriage-equality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Volont\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LELO.Official\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-29T10:16:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-08T00:26:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/EN_Volonte_150528.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"660\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"330\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Katy Thorn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Lelo_Official\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Lelo_Official\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Katy Thorn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/brief-history-marriage-equality\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/brief-history-marriage-equality\/\",\"name\":\"Gay Marriage in Ireland, Greenland, and More\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/brief-history-marriage-equality\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/brief-history-marriage-equality\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/EN_Volonte_150528.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-29T10:16:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-08T00:26:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/68fd3f91f3030cf2e5f30b74d1b3026d\"},\"description\":\"With #marriageequality trending this week in Ireland and Greenland, we take a brief look at gay marriage rights across the world.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/brief-history-marriage-equality\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/brief-history-marriage-equality\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/brief-history-marriage-equality\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/EN_Volonte_150528.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/EN_Volonte_150528.jpg\",\"width\":660,\"height\":330,\"caption\":\"dear younger queer self\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/brief-history-marriage-equality\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Volonte\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"LOVE &amp; 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