Same-sex union legislation marriages performed in the Netherlands are recognized in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. Whether same-sex couples should be allowed to marry has been and remains the topic of debate worldwide. Thirty-four countries and four jurisdictions worldwide have passed constitutional amendments that explicitly prohibit the legal recognition of same-sex marriage and sometimes other forms of legal unions as well. Seventeen countries and twenty-nine jurisdictions worldwide have authorized civil unions or unregistered cohabitation for same-sex couples as an alternative to marriage. The legal name of those unions as well as the number of rights that they provide can vary greatly. The first
Same-sex marriage in New England not judicial review. The vote came nine years after Vermont adopted its "first-in-the-nation" civil unions law in 2000, which was the first place in the United States to extend full legal recognition to same-sex couples. (Several states and cities already had "domestic partnership" registries prior to this point.) A bill to allow same-sex marriage in Maine was signed into law on May 6, 2009. Maine was the fifth U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage, and the second to legislate it. The governor also became the first in the nation to sign a same-sex marriage bill that was not the result