Taking into account many EU member states’ recently legislating on this topic, and EFAy’s historical commitment to human rights;
- EFAY supports the struggle of the LGBT community to ensure that LGBT people dispose of equal rights in all domains, including marriage, across Europe and the world.
- EFAY specifically calls for same-sex marriage to be recognised in all member states.
- As an organisation, we do not accept the argument that extending the rights that straight people already have to gay people will impinge on the rights of those straight people. Nor do we accept the argument that civil partnerships are enough to ensure equality. The introduction of civil partnerships or unions in many member states has been an important step forward in the fight, but so that people, regardless of their sexuality, can be absolutely equal, same-sex couples must be able to refer to their union as ‘marriage’, in the same way as opposite sex couples can do.
- EFAY condemns the outcome of the recent referendum in Croatia rendering same-sex marriage unconstitutional, and despite respecting the democratic will of the Croatian electorate, we sincerely hope that the decision will be soon reversed in order to ensure that LGBT people dispose of the same rights as heterosexual people in Croatia.
- As an organisation, we also support and encourage the passing of legislation in all member states enabling same-sex couples to adopt children. We believe that any couple able to provide stability and loving care to adopted children, regardless of sexual orientation, should be allowed to adopt and form a family.
