Swiss vote highlights Europe's east-west divide on gay marriage

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

63% : Same-sex marriage was first approved in Europe in the Netherlands 20 years ago.
58% : because it's such a symbol of full equality and recognition of same-sex love and same-sex couples," Hugendubel went on.
54% : After Swiss voters overwhelmingly backed same-sex marriage in a referendum on Sunday, LGBT groups in the country hailed a "historic day" for Switzerland.
52% : Meanwhile, in Central and Eastern Europe, marriage equality continues to face fierce opposition.
52% : Euronews explores the European implications of the landmark Swiss vote in favour of marriage equality.
52% : "There are discussions at the moment in Italy on an anti-discrimination legislation, including sexual orientation and gender identity, that needs to move forward very quickly in order to open up the way for the next steps, also to ensure marriage equality in Italy," Hugendubel said.
52% : "We don't have, for example, adoption rights for same-sex couples in Germany yet.
51% : According to a 2017 survey by Pew Research Center, roughly 6 in 10 Italians support same-sex marriage.
48% : In 2015, the European Parliament in a report encouraged the EU and its member states to "reflect on the recognition of same-sex marriage or same-sex civil union as a political, social and human and civil rights issue".
45% : Even if the European Union does not require member countries to legalise same-sex marriage, the EU's top court said in a 2018 ruling that the rights of same-sex couples to freedom of movement and residence must be upheld.
45% : "Of course, it is true that progress, especially on marriage equality, has been quicker in the so-called West and that unfortunately, some Eastern European countries even explicitly define marriage as a union between women and men in the constitution and thus actually block an upgrading of civil partnership and registration to marriage equality."
43% : Italy is now the only large Western European country where same-sex marriage is not legal, even if civil unions were introduced in 2016.
35% : Hungary recently passed laws that de-facto prohibits adoption for same-sex couples, and ban any content deemed to promote being gay or transgender from being distributed to minors.
33% : Over the past few years, several eastern European countries, notably Hungary and Poland, have been at odds with the European Union over LGBT rights issues.

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