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Sweden approves gay marriage
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Sweden has approved a gay marriage bill which will come into force this May.
The Swedish parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of the bill, with only twenty-two votes against the move.
The Christian Democrats, who form part of the coalition government, opposed the bill.
The Scandinavian country gave same-sex couples the right to enter into civil union in 1995, and granted them the right to adopt in 2002. However, a 1987 law, now repealed by the new bill, had defined that marriage could only be a heterosexual union.
"The decision means that gender no longer has an impact on the ability to marry and that the law on registered partnership is repealed," the government said on its website.
The bill makes Sweden the seventh country in the world to legalise gay marriage. The other countries Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa and Spain.
