Croatia passed a bill recognizing civil unions for same-sex couples by an wide margin vote of 89 to 61. The Registered Partnership Bill allows for same-sex couples to into life partnerships and recognizes these couples as a “form of family life.”
The legislation, proposed by Croatia’s Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic, saw the need to bring equal rights to the LGBT people of Croatia. The law will assure equality and access to inheritance, pensions, tax and medical care for same-sex couples as they are allowed for heterosexual couples.
The bill, however, doesn’t allow gay couples the right to adopt. But if one of the parents dies, the other living partner will gain guardianship rights. While both partners are alive and one has a child, the other is acknowledged as a stepparent.
The Catholic Church collected 750,000 signatures that demanded a ban on same-sex marriage last. The constitution was changed by defining marriage as a union between a man and woman, but the Registered Partnership Bill will strike down the ban put in place last year.
