Montenegro Makes History With First Same-Sex Marriage

Minister hails Sunday's marriage between two young women – the first since historic legisation was passed a year ago – a major step forward for Montenegrin society.

A rainbow flag during the annual Pride Parade (illustration). Photo: EPA-EFE/ESTELA SILVA

The first same-sex marriage in Montenegro was registered on Sunday in the coastal resort of Budva, a year after Montenegro became the first non-EU country in the Balkans to legalize same-sex civil partnerships.

A municipal official in Budva, Milijana Vukotic Jelusic, said the marriage was between two young women, both from abroad but with Montenegrin origins.

“We are glad that our municipality was able to be the first to apply the Law on Life Partnership and we wish happiness and a lot of love to the partners in their life together,” Jelusic told the daily newspaper Vijesti.

In July 2020, parliament in Montenegro voted to legalize same-sex civil partnerships with a very narrow majority of MPs from the then ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, the Social Democrats, the Liberal Party and the opposition Social Democratic Party.

The change was supported by only 42 MPs in the 81-seat chamber.

By law, the government had a deadline of July 15 this year to harmonize the legislative framework with the new law under which same-sex couples can enter into a legal union at their local registry office.

The law also allows the regulation of mutual financial support and division of joint property in the event of divorce. It grants those in a same-sex civil partnership the right to social security and health cover based on their partner and regulates family visits to hospitals or jails.

Itr does not provide the right to adoption or fostering of children.

The Minister of Public Administration, Digital Society and Media, Tamara Srzentic, on Sunday called the first same-sex marriage in the country a historic step.

“Although the law was adopted a year ago, much more needs to be done to meet all the preconditions for its full implementation. The LGBTIQ community will always have an ally in me for all activities that contribute to improving the quality of their life,” Srzentic said.

Despite these supportive words, homosexuality remains a sensitive issue in the still socially conservative country, as it does elsewhere in the Balkans.

Earlier surveys suggested that 71 per cent of citizens in Montenegro viewed homosexuality as an illness and that every second citizen saw it as a danger to society and wanted the state to suppress it.

Montenegro failed twice before to recognise same-sex unions – in 2014 and 2019. When it succeeded in July 2020, it became the only non-EU ex-Yugoslav republic to do so, although Serbia has similar legislation in the pipeline.

Of other former Yugoslav republics in the region, EU-members Croatia and Slovenia have legalized same-sex unions.