The approach towards gay marriage in the Albanian legislation and society

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to address the phenomena of homosexuality in Albania and the situation of persons with homosexual tendencies encounter. Future spouses’ sexuality cannot be ignored when addressing the conditions for marriage. The issue of gay marriage has been at the center of political and social debate in the world for years now. Legal regulation concerning homosexual marriage is found in countries like Spain, Argentina, Mexico, and the Netherlands. As regards Albania, no law allowing same gender marriages has been adopted yet. Our Family Code does not give a clear definition of the concept of future spouses, not having a provision that specifically requires different genders of people wishing to join in marriage, although, through a careful reading of the provisions of the Family Code it is noted that different genders are a requirement for marriage. Regardless of the time we live in, we observe that our society is still conservatory towards this phenomenon. The fear that with accepting homosexual marriages the definition of the traditional family will lose its meaning brings a large part of the society to be skeptical in accepting homosexual marriages. We continue to be faced to the myth that the acceptance of homosexual marriages will lead to an increase in the number of homosexuals in the country.