Same-sex marriage legalised

– Germany legalised same-sex marriage yesterday, joining many other Western democracies in granting gay and lesbian couples full rights, including adoption.

The election-year Bill was pushed by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s leftist rivals.

The lower house approved the law hours before the Bundestag heads into summer recess.

Gay and lesbian groups cheered the push for marriage equality in Germany, where so-called civil unions were legalised in 2001. – AFP

Picture: AFP IT’S OFFICIAL. Katrin Goering-Eckardt, parliamentary group leader of the Greens, and MP Volker Beck cut a wedding cake in rainbow colours celebrating Germany’s legalising same-sex unions.