A matter of equality, religion or politics? : The proliferation of same-sex marriage legislationamong the member states in the European Union

Abstract: This thesis has investigated the effect of political influence, religious denomination, and level of equality regarding same-sex marriage legislation among the 28 member states of the European Union (EU). Furthermore, prior research has been related to the topics: same-sex marriage cases within the EU court, religious influence on approval of homosexuality, Conservative, Liberal, and Social democratic ideas regarding same-sex marriage and research about Feminism and equality. It has used a quantitative, comparative, and causal analysis to test the six hypotheses by using Cox Regression. The thesis has concluded that religious influence had a negativeeffect on the same-sex marriage legislation, disregarding denomination, and the level of social cohesion and equality had a positive effect on the legislation. Additionally, the result has shown that among the member states of the EU, the phenomenon of same-sex marriage was not a politically polarised, but that there were rather possible other variables not included in the analysis that could explain why half of the member states have legislated same-sex marriage. However, the predicted hazard rate of no legislation has increased and if the trend would continue there could possibly be a consensus among the members of the EU in the future.