Same-sex marriage in Belgium 14 December and published on 23 December 1999 made the Act of statutory cohabitation go into effect on 1 January 2000. During 1999, the PS (French-speaking Social Democrats) and Ecolo (French-speaking Greens) also announced they agreed to legalise same-sex marriage. At that point, the only remaining party in Government that opposed same-sex marriage was the French-speaking liberal PRL (later merged into MR), mainly because it was opposed to adoption rights for same-sex couples. PRL agreed not to block same-sex marriage if adoption rights are excluded. As the first same-sex marriage in the Netherlands was performed on 1 April 2001, the
Same-sex marriage in the Northwest Territories law so it could include same-sex couples. The couple who challenged the Northwest Territory law were awarded $5,000 in legal fees to cover court costs, a judge ruled. On October 17, 2005, Supreme Court Justice Virginia Schuler ordered the Federal Government, and therefore Canadian taxpayers, to reimburse the plaintiffs for costs they incurred during their legal challenge. In June 2002, the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories approved amendments to the "Adoption Act" by allowing same-sex couples to adopt children jointly, and the "Family Law Act" by changing the definition of spouse to allow same-sex couples limited legal rights. Further