Swiss voters approve law allowing same-sex marriages

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

52% : In addition to opening up the option of marriage to all couples, an amendment to Switzerland's marriage law that was put to voters in a referendum, and approved, grants lesbian couples access to sperm banks and allows same-sex couples to adopt children.
51% : Polls by local news media had predicted widespread approval for same-sex marriage in Switzerland, but they also showed the opposition gaining some last-minute momentum after an intense advertising campaign.
50% : Kathrin Bertschy, a Swiss politician who had strongly campaigned in favor of same-sex marriage, described the result as "a milestone" for Switzerland.
50% : Under the new, amended law, same-sex couples are able to have a civil wedding and will be granted largely the same institutional and legal rights as heterosexual couples.
49% : Since 2007, same-sex couples in Switzerland have been able to enter into a civil partnership, which grants some legal rights but is not equal to a marriage.
48% : For opponents, the vote was about more than just same-sex marriage, and Frischknecht likened its significance for Swiss society to the bursting of a dam.
44% : The only country in Western Europe now that does not allow marriage between same-sex couples is Italy; it does, however, allow civil unions.
44% : Swiss LGBTQ organizations estimate that up to 30,000 children are currently being raised by same-sex parents in Switzerland, but the legal barriers in the country meant that many of those couples had to go abroad to start their families.
43% : Using images of crying babies on posters plastered in towns and cities across Switzerland, the opponents had focused their campaign on their opposition to the right of same-sex couples to have children.

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