BERLIN
(AP) -- The German Parliament plans to vote Friday on whether to
legalize same-sex marriage - only days after Chancellor Angela Merkel
backed off her conservative party's long-standing refusal to budge on
the issue.
The German news agency dpa reported
Wednesday the Parliament's legal committee had given its OK for the
vote to take place Friday.
Merkel surprisingly
said Monday she could see lawmakers making the issue a "decision of
conscience," voting
according to individual preferences rather than
along party lines.
Her comment came ahead of
Germany's Sept. 24 election in which all of Merkel's potential coalition
partners, including the center-left Social Democrats of her challenger,
Martin Schulz, are calling for same-sex marriage to be legalized.
Germany has allowed same-sex couples to enter into civil partnerships since 2001.
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