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Swiss look divided over gay marriage – Vote Sunday

The Swiss voters will decide on Sunday whether to allow same-sex couples to marry and adopt children, in a highly charged campaign that has pitted gay rights activists against conservatives in one of the last Western European countries where gay marriage is still banned.

The federal government and Parliament have approved the policy marriage for same-sex couples, but his critics managed to hold a referendum on the issue under the system of direct democracy in Switzerland.

In a provocative campaign, opponents of the reform used images of crying children and the word “slaves” written on the bellies of dark-skinned pregnant women, in a reference to surrogacy illegally in Switzerland, with supporters of the plan holding flags with the slogan ‘ Yes, I accept ‘events in Zurich and Geneva.

What the polls show

In a sign that his “no” campaign in traditionally conservative and Christian Switzerland has intensified in recent weeks, the percentage of voters expected to approve same-sex marriage fell to 63% in the latest gfs.bern poll on behalf of of the SRG network, while the percentage of those who opposed it increased to 35%, compared to 69% and 29% a month earlier.

Corinne Goodern and Anuk Oswald, a young gay couple living in Zurich, said the “Marriage for All” vote was an important milestone for their future.

“I want to be able to choose for myself if I want to marry the person next to me and if it is the right way for us to start a family,” said 30-year-old Oswald. “It is important to show the younger generation that they do not need to hide.”

Goodern, also 30, said it was not fair for an unmarried woman to be able to adopt a child but not for a same-sex couple.

“Of course, a child needs security and love; but I do not think it matters if they are offered by a heterosexual or a gay couple,” he said.

Cohabitation agreement since 2007 for same-sex couples

In Switzerland, same-sex couples acquired the right to enter into a cohabitation agreement in 2007 and the right to adopt children whose parent is their partner in 2018.

Under the amended law, same-sex couples of men and women will be able to adopt children with whom they have no kinship, just as with heterosexual couples.

Married women couples will also be able to have children through sperm donation, which is currently only legal for married heterosexual couples. By law, both women will be able to be recognized as official parents of the child from birth.

Antonia Hauswirt of the National Marriage for All Committee told Reuters that the current adoption process could take three years. “If something happens to the biological mother during this period, the child is considered an orphan.”

The proposed plan would offer children born to sperm to two parents from birth and therefore better legal protection, she said.

Critics say the changes will deprive the father of the children.

“Tomorrow, a child in Switzerland will have a mother again, but simply ‘another parent’ instead of the father. “The father is simply being deleted from the civil code, that is unacceptable to me,” Olivier Dehaud, a member of the referendum committee who opposed the proposal, told Reuters.

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