Same-sex marriage became legal in Greenland, an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, on 1 April 2016. The territory had previously recognised registered partnerships, from 1 July 1996 until 1 April 2016.
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Registered partnerships
Denmark's registered partnership law was in operation since 1 October 1989. A bill to expand its application to Greenland was approved by the Danish Parliament on 28 March 1996 and was given royal assent on 26 April 1996. It took effect on 1 July 1996. The law gave registered partners nearly identical rights to married couples, with these notable exceptions:
The law was repealed on 1 April 2016.
Same-sex marriage
A resolution, expressing Greenland's wish to opt in the current version of Denmark's marriage law, had its first reading in the Parliament of Greenland on 25 March 2015 and was approved unanimously on second reading on 26 May 2015.
*Two MPs (Jess Svane (Siumut) and Iddimanngiiu Bianco (IA)) are not shown on the vote tally in the reference link above. Since there are 31 MPs in the Greenlandic Parliament, both names of these MPs are added in this second column just to complete the tally count. ^These three parties formed the Government Coalition during the entire legislative process of this bill (28 January 2015 (introduction in the Danish Parliament) - 3 February 2016 (royal assent)). To make the leter "G" visible for one of the parties, the color from its color box has been removed.A bill to this effect was submitted to the Parliament of Denmark on 28 January 2015 and had its first reading on 26 May 2015. It was planned to come into effect on 1 October 2015. However, it lapsed due to parliamentary elections. A nearly identical bill with only minor formal changes, was submitted to Parliament on 29 October 2015 and had its first reading on 5 November 2015. The second reading happened on 14 January 2016 and the bill was approved in its final reading on 19 January 2016. The bill was given royal assent on 3 February, taking effect on 1 April 2016, which was the day the first same-sex couples in Greenland were married.