On May 17, 2019, Taiwan’s legislature passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage and making the island nation the first country in Asia to permit gays and lesbians to wed. The decision, which went into effect immediately, makes the Andean mountain nation the fifth country in Latin America to allow gays and lesbians to wed. On June 12, Ecuador’s Constitutional Court ruled that that same-sex couples have a right to marry. Northern Ireland had been the last part of the UK where same-sex marriage was banned England and Wales moved to allow gay and lesbian couples to wed in 2013 and Scotland followed in 2014 (see below). British lawmakers justified the change (which was accompanied by the legalization of abortion) because the Northern Irish parliament was suspended in January 2017 due to a stalemate between Northern Ireland’s parties. Although Northern Island is a constituent of the United Kingdom, with its own parliament at Stormont, the change in its marriage laws ultimately came about due to action by the UK’s Parliament in London.
In October 2019, same-sex marriage became legal in Northern Ireland. The country’s highest court in 2018 ruled that the nation’s law banning same-sex marriage was unconstitutional and said the ban would be nullified in 18 months unless the legislature acted before then, which it did not. In May 2020, Costa Rica became the first Central American country to legalize same-sex marriage.
