Gays win marriage rights in Norway...

Yay....yet another country grants gays the same rights as straight people....

The Norwegian government put forth a long-expected gay marriage bill on Friday, clearing the way for homosexual couples to secure the same marriage rights as heterosexuals.

Norway already has a so-called "partnership law" that has allowed homosexuals to form legal domestic partnerships. Now they likely will be able to marry, with all the rights that entails, since the government has a majority in parliament and the law is expected to win approval.

The bill, called "felles ekteskapslov" in Norwegian, will also ensure that children of lesbian couples will have two legal parents from the beginning of life, and that married homosexuals will be evaluated as adoptive parents along the same lines as heterosexual couples.

The new government minister in charge of children's and family issues, Anniken Huitfeldt of the Labour Party, called the proposed law "an historic step towards equality." She said the goal of the law is to demonstrate that homosexual and heterosexual couples are equal under the law.

"The new law won't weaken marriage as an institution," Huitfeldt claimed. "Rather, it will strengthen it. Marriage won't be worth less because more can take part in it."