Slovenia will vote on Sunday in a national referendum on amendments to the Family Code adopted in June of 2011 and granting gay married couples almost the same rights as to their married, heterosexual counterparts.
Under the current legislation, same-sex married couples have no right to adopt children from a third party, but it allows gays to adopt children of their partners.
The Civil Initiative for Family and Children's Rights movement has been arguing that homosexual married couples should not receive adoption rights at all. By February, the group with the support of the Catholic Church secured over 40,000 signatures necessary for a national referendum on the issue.
Some 1.7 million people are expected to take part in the referendum. Opinion polls show that Slovenians are likely to vote in favor of the amendments to the family law and deprive same-sex married couples of all adoption rights.
Slovenia, which joined the European Union in 2004, is relatively tolerant to gay couples and starting from 2006 the state permitted them to officially register their relationship.
