Ljubljana - The National Assembly signed same-sex marriage and adoptions into law by passing changes to the family code by 48 votes in favour and 29 against on Tuesday, capping decades of efforts by LGBT+ groups and activists to end discrimination and be recognised as equal members of society.

The changes define marriage as a union of two persons and allow homosexual partners to adopt children under the same conditions as those that apply to married couples.

Drafted by the government, the bill was passed two months after the Constitutional Court announced a landmark ruling deeming discriminatory the definition of marriage as a union of a man and a woman, and the inability of same-sex partners to adopt.

The decision took immediate effect and same-sex partners have been allowed to marry since it was announced, with the court ordering the National Assembly to remedy the legislation in six months.

It also underlined that the decision does not diminish the significance of traditional marriage as a union of a woman and a man and does not change the conditions or legal ramifications of marriage for heterosexual couples.

Coalition MPs supported the bill unequivocally, whereas the conservative opposition, the Democrats (SDS) and New Slovenia (NSi), stood by well-known conservative policy positions.

The SDS argued that homosexual couples had already had the same rights as heterosexual couple, bar adoption and artificial insemination.

The NSi meanwhile said they could not understand how a union between a man and a woman can have the same significance as a union between homosexual partners, since the former is inherently open to childbirth and same-sex marriage is not.

In the EU, 13 countries have so far legalised same-sex marriage: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.