Austria Makes It Official, Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

AUSTRIA — While same-sex civil unions have been legal in the country since it was legalized back 2010, the country’s constitutional court ruled Tuesday Dec. 5, to make same-sex marriage the law of the land.

Ruling that current marriage law discriminates against the LGBT community while favoring heterosexual couples. The new law or as they put it, the new “restrictions” will be automatically lifted in early 2019 unless the government takes action before then.

The constitutional court’s ruling will allow both heterosexual and LGBT couples to enter legal partnerships that aren’t marriage, following a case whereby a straight couple applied to enter into a civil partnership, which up until now was only reserved for gay couples.