…Germany legalized gay marriage this morning!

Germany has had civil union status for gay couples since 2001, but the marriage question has been contentious among the religious right (Angela Merkel’s party). This item wasn’t even up for consideration before Monday, but suddenly went on the agenda and passed 393-226. Merkel herself voted “no.” Most people are saying this was forced on to the CDU as the collaboration of the left parties is growing larger and more influential. Polls among Germans have long shown most people were for this move but it took quite a long time to come to fruition. The quote in the article from Merkel I think is most telling:

“To me, marriage as defined in the German basic law means the marriage between husband and wife, and that is why I vote against the law today,” Merkel said shortly after the vote.
But she did say that her thinking had changed on the question of child adoption by same-sex couples, which she long opposed, labelling her past comments on it “unsatisfactory”.
“Since then I have thought a lot about the matter of child welfare and have now… come to the conviction that same-sex couples should be able to jointly adopt children,” she said.
– The Local

While there were obviously political motives to having this vote, I think for now I personally will just be happy for everyone and leave the politics out.