First ex-Soviet country legalizes gay marriage

On Tuesday, Estonia’s parliament passed the law redefining marriage by a vote of 55-34. The vote echoes a 2023 poll by the Center for Human Rights, which showed 53 percent of Estonians support same-sex marriage. Because Estonia allows only married people to adopt, same-sex couples will be able to do so after the law takes effect on Jan. 1, 2024.

Will this start a trend? The ex-Soviet states of Latvia and Lithuania have similar bills under consideration in their parliaments. Twenty of Europe’s 44 countries have legalized same-sex marriage, and almost all of them are on the western half of the continent.

Dig deeper: Listen to John Stonestreet and Nick Eicher discuss international laws about same-sex marriage on The World and Everything in It podcast.