Voters have last word on 'marriage for all' bill

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) A legal reform to make marriage and joint adoption available to same-sex couples looks to be heading for approval by Swiss citizens.

Originally from Ireland, Domhnall worked in research and writing in a couple of European countries before joining swissinfo.ch in 2017. He covers direct democracy and politics and is usually in Bern.

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Voting ends at midday on Sunday on a law that would make Switzerland the 30th country worldwide – and one of the last in Western Europe – to extend full marital status to male-male and female-female couples.

A poll published last week by the GfS Bern research institute showed 'marriage for all' still had a comfortable lead, with 63% of voters in favour, though this was down from 69% a month earlier.

The change to the civil code, backed by government and most major political groups, was approved by parliament last December, but was challenged to a referendum by opponents who gathered the necessary 50,000 signatures .

Currently, same-sex couples have some of the same rights as heterosexual couples, under a 2007 civil partnership act. If the law is accepted on Sunday, they will also be able to jointly adopt children – at the moment they can only adopt children parented by one of them – while lesbian couples could access sperm donors and medically assisted procreation.

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Same-sex couples could also apply for the same facilitated citizenship procedure available for foreign spouses of Swiss citizens.

Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter, who piloted the reform on behalf of the government, said it was about eliminating inequality and ensuring the state stays out of judging how citizens organise their private lives.

It's also a question of keeping pace with the“social evolutions” of the past decades, Keller-Sutter said during a debate on French-speaking public broadcaster RTS.

Campaigners and LGBTIQ groups further stressed that beyond the legal discrimination, the law would be a symbolic step forward in dismantling the stigma and social discrimination against same-sex couples.

“The road is still long before LGBT are accepted as they are, and marriage for all is therefore all the more necessary,” campaign director Olga Baranova told the Le Temps newspaper.“It would be a huge step on the road to equality”.

Opponents used the arguments of tradition, child welfare, the right to know one's biological father, and the need for such a change to be constitutional rather than simply civil.

“Since the dawn of time […] the man has left his father and mother to join with a women. Together, they form a couple which to biologically, and pass life on naturally,” wrote Marc Früh from the Federal Democratic Union.

Früh's small and ultra-conservative party, along with the right-wing People's Party and some members of the Evangelical and Centre parties drove the campaign against the change.

Opponents also said the right to lesbian couples to access sperm banks in Switzerland – where the name of the donor is only accessible to the child once he or she reaches 18 – deprives children of the right to have a father.

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They also raised the spectre – notably on gory and provocative campaign posters – of a boom in surrogacy procedures, especially abroad. The practice, which is illegal in Switzerland, is not mentioned in the new legislation.

Some opponents finally tried to push the point that such a big societal change warranted not a change to the civil code but to the constitution – which might have made it more difficult to be accepted by the public.

For Keller-Sutter this was a moot point:“in the end”, she told RTS“it's not the constitution that's going to decide the question. It's about whether or not we want to give homosexuals equal rights”.

There are two separate issues of the national ballot papers on Sunday:

Voters decide on a law on same-sex marriage and on a proposal to introduce a capital gains tax in Switzerland.

It is the third of up to four sets of nationwide votes this year as part of Switzerland's system of direct democracy.

About 5.5 million Swiss citizens, including registered expat Swiss, are eligible to take part in the votes.

There are also numerous ballots at cantonal and local levels on September 26.

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