Slovenia rejects same-sex marriage by large margin in referendum
By Tim Hume, CNN
Updated 1448 GMT (2248 HKT) December 21, 2015
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| cnn.com |
(CNN)Slovenian voters have rejected by a large margin a law that would have given same-sex couples the right to marry and adopt children, Slovenia's government says.
Just over 63% of voters in Sunday's referendum rejected the bill redefining marriage as a union between two consenting adults, rather than expressly between a man and a woman.
There was a relatively low rate of participation, with just over 36% of eligible voters turning out, Slovenia's Government Communication Office said.
The defeat of the bill, which would have established full legal equality between heterosexual and same-sex marriage, was seen as a victory for conservatives backed by the Catholic Church, the dominant religious group in the former Yugoslav republic of about 2 million people.
Slovenia had passed a law in March, proposed by the opposition United Left party and supported by the government, giving same-sex couples the right to marry and adopt.
But a conservative civil society group launched a petition against the law before any same-sex couples were able to wed, and it appealed to the courts to turn the matter over to a public vote.
In a referendum in 2012, Slovenian voters had also rejected extending greater rights to same-sex couples.
Unequal treatment
Violeta Tomic, a parliament member from the United Left party, which backed the March law change, tweeted that she was saddened by the result and pointed to the influence of the Catholic Church in opposing same-sex marriage.
Amnesty Slovenia, which had campaigned in favor of same-sex marriage, tweeted a "sad face" emoticon as news broke that the law had been overturned.
"Sadly no marriage equality in Slovenia," it tweeted. In a statement about the result on its website, it said that Slovenian law discriminates against people in same-sex relationships in more than 70 aspects of life.
The vote reflects a cultural split in the European Union, with many Western members -- including Britain, France, Spain and Ireland -- granting legal recognition to same-sex marriage, a move that remains contentious in the former communist countries that are more recent additions to the EU.
Slovenia joined the EU in 2004.
斯洛維亞同性婚姻及撫養權法案由民意表決，斯洛維亞政府表示，大部分反對通過此案。
星期天舉辦的公投中有63%的公民不贊成婚姻被重新定義為兩個成年人相互合意下結合。
斯洛維亞政府通訊部門表示，有相對低比例的認同民眾，僅占投票數的36%。
這個法案可以打造同性與異性間在立法上的婚姻平等，沒有通過對天主教會支持的保守派系而言是一大勝利，天主教會共有200萬人，是前南斯拉夫共和國最大宗教團體。
3 月時斯洛維亞才通過由反對黨聯合左派提案，並在政府支持下使同性伴侶享有婚姻及撫養權的法案。
但就在同性伴侶可以結婚前，保守的民間社會團體挑起了抗議活動，迫使法庭將該案轉由公投。
在2012年公投中，斯洛維亞公民就曾經拒絕讓同性伴侶擴張其權利。
不平等的對待
支持三月法案的聯合左派議員Tomic在推特上面指責反對同性婚姻的天主教會，覺得這結果令她失望透頂。
而當新聞報出法案結果遭逆轉時，熱衷於同性婚姻運動Slovenia則貼出了一個傷心的表情貼圖。
「斯洛維亞無婚姻平權，遺憾。」Slovenia推特寫著。當網站上公布公投結果訊息，也表示出斯洛維亞法律仍嚴重歧視同性關係勝過其他生活方面。
投票結果則顯現出歐盟之間的文化歧異，諸多西方會員國如英法西及愛爾蘭皆立法承認同性婚姻，這行為在前共產制度時代的國家中仍存有爭議，這些前共產國家近期才加入歐盟，如2004年加入歐盟的斯洛維亞。
consent (v.) 同意，准許
heterosexual (adj.) 異性的
parliament (n.) 議會
sadden (v.) 令人悲傷
communist (n.) 共產主義
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