In a landslide vote on Wednesday evening, 56 out of 60 Luxembourg members of parliament voted for opening marriage and adoption rights to same-sex couples. It has been a long journey for the bill, which was first introduced in parliament in May 2012 and which also encompasses other elements, such as • raising the minimum age for marriage to 18 for both partners – women previously needed to be only 16 years of age; • abolishing a previously compulsory medical exam before civil marriage; • allowing the prosecution to intervene in cases of suspected forced marriage – both before and after marriage – and making it easier to annul such unions. The vote followed a debate in which government and opposition parties showed broad consensus on same-sex marriage. The LSAP's Alex Bodry spoke of “a milestone against discrimination”, déi Gréng's Viviane Loschetter called it “a great moment for the whole of society”, while the CSV's Léon Gloden said it represented the “modernisation of an old tradition.” In regards to adoption, MPs agreed that the best interest of the child should be at the heart of any adoption procedure. Bodry also made a passionate argument against banning same-sex couples from adoption over fears that their children face discrimination or bullying, saying that this was not the parents' fault and that all possible efforts need to be made to fight such stigmatisation. In an earlier version of the bill only open adoption was to be granted to homosexual couples, while closed adoption, in which all ties to the birth parents are severed, was to be reserved for heterosexual couples. However, the new law does away with this differentiation. It ensures equality between heterosexual and homosexual couples said the CSV's Paul-Henri Meyers who was the official spokesperson of the parliamentary committee charged with formulating the bill. “The same rights and duties apply to all citizens,” he said. “That's all there is to it.” Only the ADR's three MPs voted against the bill, as well as one CSV deputy. The news from Luxembourg was also reported in the international press, from the UK's Independent to The Washington Post. Even Human Rights Watch welcomed the vote, with their LGBT rights programme advocacy director Boris Dittrich commenting: “This is a happy day for Luxembourg … The law will enable gays and lesbians in Luxembourg to marry the person they love and will strengthen the fundamental rights of everyone in Luxembourg to equality and non-discrimination.” Following yesterday's vote, the bill needs to be signed into law by the Grand Duke and all administrative procedures are expected to be finished by early 2015, when the new law can come into force. It is only the first of several social reform's, which the coalition is set to carry out during its legislative period, with a general reform of adoption procedures and divorce laws also on the horizon. Source