Malta votes to legalize same-sex marriage

A gay pride flag.
(Image credit: Noel Celis/AFP/Getty Images)

Malta has voted to legalize same-sex marriage, six years after the island permitted divorce.

Malta's official religion is Catholicism, and the Catholic Church opposed the amendment, but just one of Malta's 67 parliamentarians voted against it, the BBC reports. Parliament amended the marriage act so it now says "spouse" instead of "husband" and "wife" and "parent who gave birth" and "parent who did not give birth" instead of "mother" and "father."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.