Switzerland has voted by a wide margin in favor of allowing same-sex couples to get married and adopt children, in a referendum held on Sunday.
The Alpine nation has now become the latest western European country to recognize LGBTQ+ marriages.
Official results show 64.1% percent voted "yes" to legalizing same-sex marriages, while 36% voted "no," according to initial results from gfs.bern.
However, supporters say it could take months before such marriages could take place, mainly because of the country's administrative and legislative procedures.
Ahead of the vote, the government and lawmakers had urged voters to back "marriage for all," and eliminate the current "unequal treatment" of LGBTQ+ couples.
But conservative politicians — opposed to the law — managed to secure the required 50,000 signatures to put the issue to a referendum.
Switzerland decriminalized homosexuality in 1942, but local and regional police forces were known to have maintained "gay registers" until the 1990s. »