Norwegian Parliament Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage
Norway's parliament has granted same-sex couples the right to marry and adopt children, and granted lesbians the right to be artificially inseminated:
"After a heated debate, the members of parliament adopted the text by a vote of 84 to 41. The three centre-left coalition parties in power and two opposition parties, the Conservatives and the Liberals, voted largely in favour of the law, while the Christian Democrats and the far-right Progress Party voted against it. 'This decision is of an importance comparable to universal suffrage and our law on parity,' Labour Party rapporteur Gunn Karin Gjul said during the debate. The most controversial part of the law is that which gives lesbians the right to be artificially inseminated. The sperm donor must be identified so that the child can seek out his or her biological father at the age of 18."