Maltese lawmakers voted on Wednesday to legalize same-sex marriage on the Roman Catholic Mediterranean island, fulfilling Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's campaign promise to make this the first law brought before parliament in his new term.
The law, which drew cross-party support, removes words including as "husband," "wife," "mother" and "father" from the Marriage Act and replaces them with the gender-neutral "spouse," "parent who gave birth" and "parent who did not give birth.
Muscat said such wording was needed to avoid categorizing any member of society. He rejected accusations that this could spell the end to "Mother's Day" or "Father's Day," saying such suggestions were "laughable.
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