Some talk from someone who was born and lives in Germany. Usually staying out of such topics but I think it's better if you can hear things from someone who actually has to deal with it the entire life. _____ The Policitians voted Yes on "Marriage for all", that was the exact term they were using. However, they also recently voted Yes on that Marriage for Underage People (under 18) should be outlawed and if a married couple with a person under 18 moves to Germany, the Marriage will be made void. Another fact. Gay Marriage Rights are a topic here for over 15 years already. Movements for Gay Marriage Rights and votings often failed because of two major reasons: 1. The major political and leading party in Germany is the "[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Democratic_Union_of_Germany]CDU[/url]", the Christian Democratic union of Germany. 2. Obligation to vote in accordance with party policy The CDU always has been the opinion that Gay Marriage should not be allowed. Note here, the CDU describes as its basic values "freedom, solidarity, justice", which are derived from "their Christian-social, liberal and value-conservative roots" ([b]I'm not bashing on religion here, the point here is the contradiction[/b]). For the recent vote on the "Marriage for all", the obligation to vote in accordance with party policy was lifted. With 623 given votes, 393 members of the parliament voted Yes (63.082%). 226 No votes, four abstained. Our Chancellor, Angela Merkel (also CDU), voted No. And even while the majority voted Yes, it will probably take another half year until it is actually "allowed" by law. _____ You'll see that contradiction is normal in politics, but especially here in Germany. I don't think that anyone specific is at fault for this, but everyone. Politicians/Parties here don't work together, instead they work against each other, the big reason why everything is so slow here. I don't know how fast things work in other countries, but personally I find it a big annoyance that it takes 1-2 years on average here to establish new laws. Not to mention that generally the Politicians only start reacting to something [b]after[/b] bad things happen.