Albania Moves Towards Marriage Equality, Angers Religious Leaders - Lez Get Real

The nation’s population largely identifies with Islam as their ancestral background, but the reality is that most Albanians are more secular in their views, and that they do not attend religious ceremonies often. Only about a third of the country’s population are devout enough in their religious views to attend church on a regular basis, and the majority of those are either Orthodox or Sunni Muslim. Less than ten percent of the country is Catholic. Thus, it is with this backdrop that Prime Minister Sali Berisha introduced legislation on 29 July which would grant same-sex couples the right to marry within the borders of Albania. This surprising move comes within a nation which does not have a visible LGBT Community, and where prejudice against same-sex couples can be fairly high. Berisha stated that he believed that this was an issue of ending discrimination. Berisha has been portrayed as a “family values” politician in the past, and he is largely a conservative.