LGBTIQ +. Anti-rights lead to referendum the approval of equal marriage in Switzerland

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On December 18, 2020, the Swiss parliament approved marriage equality. The new legislation establishes “the right to marriage and family” without exclusive definitions of said institutions. In turn, it also grants lesbian couples access to assisted fertilization.

In the Council of States (upper house) the bill, which had been presented seven years ago, was supported by 24 deputies, rejected by 11 and another 7 abstained. In June it had been voted by the National Council (the lower house), with 136 deputies in favor, 48 against, and 9 abstentions.

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Before the approval, the ultraconservative Christian Federal Democratic Union party launched a campaign with the slogan “yes to marriage and family, no to marriage for all”, denouncing that marriages between people of the same gender are “false” since arguing that only a man and a woman can build a “natural” bond for life.

With that campaign, a week before the deadline expires, They gathered 61,027 signatures to submit the approval of the law to a referendum. Swiss law provides that laws passed by Parliament can be submitted to a referendum if requested by at least 50,000 signatories within a period of one hundred days after the official publication of the law. The mechanism allows that law to be vetoed.

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In response to this, Operation Libero launched a campaign that managed to gather 100,000 signatures supporting the idea that “it is important that people in Switzerland be able to marry regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Polls show support figures for same-sex marriage of around 80%.

The Federal Chancellery must set a date in May to hold the plebiscite, which would be after September. As it usually happens, Faced with each right conquered by LGBTIQ + people as a result of the mobilization decades ago, the reactionary sectors do not stand still and promote all possible instances and measures to put restrictions or directly prevent their application.

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