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Albania Moves Towards Marriage Equality, Angers Religious Leaders

Albania is one of those little nations which tends to be forgotten for the most part. For the last several centuries it has been part of the regional wars rolling over the area trying to secure the area for either the Ottoman Turks, the Byzantines, and many other empires. A former Communist nation, Albania has been a Parliamentary Republic with free elections since 1992 when the Communists were forced from government through a combination of social unrest and economic collapse. Albania was one of the few Communist nations that was neither aligned with Moscow or Beijing for the majority of the last quarter of the 20th Century.

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.

Reaction from the few visible LGBT Community spokespeople has been both of surprise and of elation. In a press release, the Alliance Against Discrimination Against Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgenders, based in Tirana, “We look forward to the support of all parties and to the passage of the non-discrimination law soon after the next session of parliament begins…This is not only a step to be taken for European integration, but primarily for the emancipation of Albanian society, and we are proud that our country is joining so many others in embracing equality and rejecting discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.”

In many ways, the move is seen as a step towards integration into the European Union which accepted the application of Albania to join the current 27 members; however, a decision upon accepting Albania’s formal application has not been reached yet, and this may be part of that process. Currently, Macedonia, Croatia and Turkey are all candidate countries with Croatia being the most advanced in the process. Albania must complete a rigorous number of reforms to its social and political fabric in order to qualify for admission, and that includes protections for minorities. If the application to join the EU is accepted, Albania will meet with European Union representatives in order to determine what areas need to be reformed in order to gain entry into the EU as a whole. This move is one of those steps intended to help get that application approved.

The move to legalize same-sex marriage in Albania was met with resistance from the religious communities within the country, and a few from without. The Vatican has been stern about this legislation, though no formal statements have been lodged (at least publicly). The religious communities see moves like this as undermining their moral authority within the society, and are vehemently opposed to them. While religions have made some headway in regaining the ground lost under Communism, Albanians are still largely more directed towards the religious traditions of the recent past including being more atheist and agnostic than being religious.

The recent elections which returned Berisha’s center-right Democrat Party was an improvement on the electoral process of the past several elections, though there were concerns which will have to be addressed if Albania wishes to join the EU.

Prime Minister Berisha’s move to legalize same-sex marriage has brought to light a very specific issue for most religious leaders in Europe, and that is the decline of their influence, and the tracking towards the more conservative in order to win people back to the fold. A recent move in Italy over abortion rights angered the Vatican. Italy recently legalized the abortion pill RU486 despite objections from the Vatican, threatening to excommunicate anyone who prescribes it. In recent years, organized religions have seen a decline in importance in the daily lives of most citizens and their ability to call upon their followers to vote in certain patterns has diminished.

State Department Statistics
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Photograph of Prime Minister Sali Berisha and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton via Wikipedia