From rwockner@netcom.com  Tue Dec 27 01:25:32 1994
Copyright (c) 1994 Rex Wockner and affiliated publications.
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The city name "Ostersund" takes two dots over the 'O'.
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                 FIRST SWEDISH GAY WEDDINGS SET
                        by Rex Wockner
 
        Sweden's law legalizing gay marriage comes into effect Jan. 1 and 
gays and lesbians are lining up at City Hall doors.
        The first couple to marry likely will be Hans Jonsson, 43, and 
Sven-Olov Jansson, 58, who live in the far northern town of Ostersund. 
They have plans for Jan. 2.
        Stockholm activists will celebrate Jan. 5 at City Hall along with 
eight couples who plan to tie the knot that day.
        Sweden's parliament legalized gay and lesbian marriage June 7 by 
a vote of 171 to 141 with 5 abstentions and 32 absences.
        At the time, Prime Minister Carl Bildt stated: "We accept 
homosexual love as equivalent to heterosexual. Love is an important force 
to personal as well as social development, and should therefore not be 
denied."
        The size of the win was a surprise to activists, who thought they 
might win or lose by two votes.
        As in Denmark and Norway -- the other nations that allow gays to 
marry -- the Swedish law grants gay spouses all rights of marriage except 
access to adoption, artificial insemination, in-vitro fertilization, and 
church weddings.
        In all three nations, one partner must be a citizen living in 
his/her home country.
        Denmark legalized gay marriage in 1989 and Norway in 1993. More 
than 3,000 gay couples have wed in Denmark.
 
                         == END ==
 
Rex Wockner
San Diego, CA 92103 
rwockner@netcom.com