The Italian parliament has supported same-sex civil unions today in a vote of confidence for Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, despite staunch opposition from Catholic conservatives.
The Catholic-majority country was the last Western democracy not to legally recognise same-sex partnerships, and was ruled to be violating human rights by the European Court of Human Rights in failing to offer legal protection fro same-sex couples.
The bill has given significant concessions to the socially conservative right in order to garner necessary support.
Under this bill, gay people are not able to adop their partner's children, fro example.
Gay couples will also not have to pledge loyalty, putting a distance between civil unions and marriage vows.
However, gay couples will enjoy the same legal protections as heterosexual married couples, such as receiving a deceased spouse's pension.
The vote of confidence in the centre-left Prime Minister (369-193) means the civil unions bill will inevitably become law.
The final approval will take place later today in a vote which is seen to be a formality after the vote in confidence.
The bil is only "a first step", according to its main sponsor, Democratic Party Senator Mocia Cirinna, who called the watered-down version a "hollow victory".
"This is a very important measure, but I am also thinking of the children of so many friends," she told the BBC.
Adoption is not banned, but cases will be judged on an individual basis.
Despite the concessions, Renzi said: "Today is a day of celebration for so many people. We are writing another important page of the Italy we want."
The official teaching on homosexuality of the Catholic Church, which is highly inflluential in Italy, is: "Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder."
