Large majority of Swedes want to allow gay marriage: poll

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

STOCKHOLM (AFP) — Nearly three quarters of Swedes are in favour of allowing homosexuals to wed, according to a poll published by the Svenska Dagbladet daily on Monday.

Seventy-one percent of the 1,000 people questioned in the Sifo Institute poll last week said gay people should be permitted to marry.

"This survey shows that a large majority of Swedes feel homosexual couples should be treated on an equal footing" with heterosexuals, Soeren Juvas, the head of the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights, told AFP.

Sweden has since 1995 allowed gays and lesbians the right to civil unions, granting them the same legal status as married couples.

But gay and lesbian organisations have long been pushing for the last distinction...