Swiss voters OK same-sex marriages

GENEVA — Cheers rang out, hugs were exchanged and rainbow-colored flags waved overhead across Switzerland as the Swiss resoundingly voted to allow samesex couples to marry, final results of a nationwide referendum showed Sunday.

Official results showed the measure passed with 64.1 percent of the vote while more than half of all voters approved in each of Switzerland’s 26 cantons, or states. The vote - years in the making - is set to bring the Alpine nation into line with many others in western Europe and wraps up an often tense campaign between rival sides.

Justice Minister Karin Keller-sutter tweeted that the government will implement the decision quickly and, under current plans, the new rules can take effect on July 1, 2022.

Switzerland’s parliament and the governing Federal Council — on which she sits — had supported the “Marriage for All” measure, which marks a key step for greater rights for gays and lesbians in Switzerland. The country has authorized samesex civil partnerships since 2007.

Passage is set to put same-sex partners on an equal legal footing with heterosexual couples by allowing them to adopt children and facilitating citizenship for same-sex spouses. It will also permit lesbian couples to utilize regulated sperm donation.

“This is a historic day for us and for Switzerland. This is a great step forward, something we have been waiting for for years,” said Laura Russo, co-president of the Geneva Federation of LGBT Associations. “This initiative was begun in 2013; we had to wait eight years for the vote to happen — and here, this is a big ‘Yes.’ ”

Opponents believe that replacing civil partnerships with full marriage rights would undermine families based on a union between a man and a woman.