SLOVENIA: Constitutional Court Allows National Referendum To Repeal Same-Same Marriage Law

The haters in Slovenia have convinced the Constitutional Court that despite a recently-adopted ban on voting on human rights, there will be a national referendum to repeal same-sex marriage. Via Agence France-Presse:

The court’s decision comes after parliament in March adopted a bill giving same-sex couples the same marriage rights as heterosexual couples. A conservative group close to the centre-right opposition Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) and backed by the Catholic Church had contested the law. The group gathered enough signatures to trigger a referendum. But Slovenia’s parliament had halted the initiative in its tracks, claiming it was unconstitutional given that marriage heterosexual or gay is a basic right. The Constitutional Court on Thursday struck down parliament’s bid to prevent a popular vote. Under Slovenian law, any group that gathers 40,000 signatures within a month’s time can take a motion to referendum. Slovenia’s total population is estimated at around 2 million. Should more than 20 percent of the electorate take part in the referendum, and a majority of them vote against the law, it will eventually be scrapped.

So disappointing.

RELATED: The European Union currently has 28 members. Same-sex marriage is legal in twelve of them: Belgium, Denmark, Finland (effective 2017), France, Ireland (effective later this year) Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland.)  Civil unions are legal in seven EU nations: Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia (effective 2016), Germany, Hungary, and Malta. No partnership recognitions exist in nine EU nations: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. Non-EU member Norway legalized same-sex marriage in 2009.