section_path: Registered partnerships/Passage of legislation in 2011
section_name: Passage of legislation in 2011
paragraph_text: Passage of legislation in 2011
  
  In December 2009, Justice Minister Aurelia Frick announced she would finalise a draft of the registered partnership bill by January 2010. The draft was presented in April 2010. After the consultation period for the bill finished on 16 July, a few items were amended as a result of the discussion. The bill was described as very similar to the Austrian law passed in autumn 2009. In August 2010, Prince Alois declared his support for the proposal. On 23 November 2010, the cabinet formulated the final version of the bill, which was approved by Parliament in its first reading on 16 December 2010. It passed its second reading on 16 March 2011 in a 21–0 vote, and was published on 21 March as the Registered Partnership Act (German: Partnerschaftsgesetz).
  
  According to a report approved by the government in October 2022, the partnership law used "gender-equitable formulations" in its general clauses and legal definitions, implying that both same-sex and opposite-sex couples could enter into registered partnerships under the law.