Same-sex marriage in Belgium Same-sex marriage in Belgium On 1 June 2003, Belgium became the second country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage, after the Netherlands. "Statutory cohabitation", open to any two legally consenting cohabiting persons, is also possible since 1 January 2000. In 1995, a bill was introduced in Parliament to provide for a legal framework of "cohabitation agreements". It was mostly intended as a response to the lowering marriage rates, rather than giving rights to same-sex couples. In 1998, the bill was changed to "statutory cohabitation" (; ; ) and finally voted on. The Chamber of Representatives approved it by a
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