The Mediterranean nation becomes the 24th country to legalise same-sex marriage.
Malta, a nation where divorce was illegal until 2011, became the 24th country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage on Wednesday.
The Maltese lawmakers voted 66-1 in favour of the new legislation replacing the traditional “you are now husband and wife” declaration in civil ceremonies with “you are now spouses”.
As reported by The Independent, the one MP who voted against the new law did so because of his faith. MP Edwin Vassallo said, “A Christian politician cannot leave his conscience outside the door.”
It was in 2014 when the highly conservative nation granted gay couples the right to civil partnerships and last year was the first time when the number of exclusively civil marriages eclipsed the number of church weddings.
More than a dozen European countries have legalised same-sex marriage, and almost a dozen others, including Italy, have some sort of same-sex unions or civil partnerships.
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