Denmark's centre-left government has presented a bill in parliament that, if passed as expected, will enable gay people to marry in the state Evangelical Lutheran Church.
The bill is to be debated on March 20.
No date has been set for the vote, but the legislation is expected to be adopted as the government and its key ally, the far-left Red Greens, support the bill and together hold a majority in parliament.
Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said earlier this week that if adopted, the new law would enter into force on June 15 and "we will see the first gays and lesbians marry in the Danis Lutheran Church by this summer".
It's "a big step forward and one which is natural in a modern Denmark," Thorning-Schmidt told reporters.
According to the bill, a pastor will not be obliged to marry a gay couple if he or she does not want to, but couples can turn to another pastor who will agree to perform the ceremony.
Denmark was the first country in the world to allow gay couples to enter into civil unions in 1989. These unions have given homosexuals virtually the same rights as heterosexual couples, but not the right to a religious wedding ceremony.
Since 1997 the Church has offered gay couples a religious blessing of their union, stopping short of the wedding ceremony, and they are not registered as a couple on parish lists.
In 2009, gay couples were given the right to adopt children.
Six of the 10 bishops in the Church, questioned in 2010 by the Berlingske Tidende newspaper, said they were in favour of same-sex marriages.
Some 80 per cent of Danes were members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church as of January 1, or 4.5 million people.
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