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Gender-neutral Marriage in Sweden – An Issue of Love and Sexual Identity
| In 2009 the Swedish marriage law was made gender neutral, which meant that same sex couples could enter into marriage. The law reform had been extensively discussed in family policy documents since the 1980s and can be seen in light of a continuous modernisation and equalisation of citizenship rights during the 20th century. In the Swedish context gender-neutral marriage has been framed as an issue of sexual identity, of love and equal rights for homosexuals and heterosexuals. In other national contexts issues of same sex marriage are framed differently. Research on the public debate and legal explorations in other countries shows among other things that the debate focused on gender and on whether same sex couples differ significantly from different sex couples, rather than on sexuality, which was the case in Sweden. Using discursive analysis this paper will present the Swedish case of gender-neutral marriage reform and analyse how it was prepared and discussed in state policy documents (SOU). It will also compare the Swedish policy process to the American debate on the issue, which helps to shed light on how Swedish family policy has developed during the last three decades. The results of the analysis show how norms of coupledom and reproduction are made relevant for state regulation of intimate relations.
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