Estonia will likely become the first Baltic nation to achieve marriage equality

Estonia’s president of Parliament Lauri Hussar is determined to make the nation the first in the Baltic to legalize same-sex marriage.

“Very soon, in two or three weeks, we are going to adopt the same-sex union and same-sex marriage laws,” Hussar told Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT) earlier this week.

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He said it will become clear whether marriage equality will come to pass “in probably four weeks.”

“I hope so, because we have the Liberal government, we have the liberal Reform Party, we have the social democrats, and I am myself from the party Estonia 200,” Hussar said. “We are the only party which has same-sex marriage in our program. So, therefore, I think we’re going to do it.”

He also referenced polls that show more than half of Estonians support marriage equality.

“So it is not an issue like it has been six, or seven years ago, the mood has changed,” Hussar said. “And I think the mood has changed also, because of what happened in Ukraine, because the war brought us to the real problems and what is really important for us. It united us in helping Ukraine and also brought us to the roots of liberal democracy and therefore, I think it brought us to think about what is important for us as a society.”

He acknowledged that, of course, Estonia still has a religious and conservative contingent against marriage equality. But he also said so much progress has been made in the past seven years.

“Almost everybody felt that now it is a little bit more equal society than before,” he said. “And I think this is what we have to do, because if we were making the civil partnership decision, then there is still another decision ahead, the same-sex marriage decision, and you will have to make it anyway. So why make two steps? And anyway, it is too political… We hope to adopt the law before July, to make it once, I think it is reasonable enough.”

The reporter then asked if he saw the topic causing issues with Estonia’s neighbor, Russia, a nation known for its severe anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda law.

“Yes, but the problem is that Russia is always trying to use the weaknesses of all societies and turn us against each other… I think our goal is actually to stand against it, to be strong enough to fight against this psychological war.”

Hussar said that in countries that have achieved marriage equality, “the issue has been closed and society moved forward.”

In 2014, Estonia also became the first Soviet nation to legalize civil unions for LGBTQ+ people.