Gay pride parade participants campaign for equality

Several diplomats including the US, British and Finnish ambassadors to Switzerland took part in the parade Jaione Belza Guede

Switzerland’s largest gay pride parade took place in Zurich on Saturday. Organisers and participants used the occasion to campaign for equal rights for gay couples, especially when it comes to the question of marriage and adoption. 

The two-hour festive march began at 14:00 in central Zurich and organisers estimate that around 9,000 people took part and 3,000 cheered from the sidelines.

The organisers sought to highlight the inability of Swiss gay couples to legally marry each other or adopt other people’s children unlike heterosexual married couples. An unmarried gay person can theoretically adopt a child provided they are 35 years or older. 

Huge turnout at #ZurichPrideExternal link! People from all walks of life supporting #TeamForLoveExternal link! pic.twitter.com/K1tAMty36zExternal link

— Cybele Cochran (@CybeleCochran) June 11, 2016External link

In 2005, the Swiss people voted to allow same-sex civil unions which came into force in 2007. The civil partnership resembles marriage in all but name with gay couples granted the same pension, inheritance and tax rights and obligations. However, adoption of children by gay couples in a civil partnership remains forbidden. 

Last month, both houses of the Swiss parliament approved a change in adoption law that would allow all unmarried couples (including gay couples) to adopt the child or children of their partners. However, a final decision on the issue is expected on June 17 and conservative parties have warned to launch a referendum against the change in law if it passes. If they succeed in collecting 50,000 signatures in three months the referendum could take place as early as this year. 

“In this motion, the voters will decide whether a parent may adopt their partner’s biological children. Once again the question will be raised whether the love of homosexual couples – in this case parental love – is equal to the love of heterosexual couples,” said a statementExternal link on the Zurich Pride website.