Spain poised to be third country to legalize gay marriage

[Boris Godunov]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=732&e=7&u=/nm/20050421/wl_nm/spain_marriage_dc

Spain Approves Gay Marriage Despite Church Anger

2 hours, 38 minutes ago World - Reuters

By Emma Ross-Thomas

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's parliament gave initial approval to a law legalizing gay marriage on Thursday in a move likely to rekindle conflict with a Catholic Church that has just elected a new conservative pope.

A packed public gallery erupted in cheers and applause as the speaker announced approval of the Socialist government's proposal, making Spain the third European country to legalize gay marriage.

"It's unfair to be a second-class citizen because of love," Socialist legislator Carmen Monton said. "Spain joins the vanguard of those defending full equality for gays and lesbians."

The proposal, part of a raft of liberal social legislation by the government, has outraged Spain's Catholic church and is unlikely to please Pope Benedict XVI, elected on Tuesday.

The Pope, formerly the Vatican's top doctrinal guardian, has said same-sex unions are destroying the concept of marriage and eroding Europe's social identity.

The bill, passed by 183-136, still needs Senate approval and a final reading in the lower house, but it is widely expected to become law.

However, Spain's top judicial authority has said in a non-binding ruling that gay marriage is unconstitutional, which could encourage a legal challenge.

Only the conservative opposition Popular Party and a Christian democrat party from Catalonia opposed the bill.

Popular Party spokesman Eduardo Zaplana said his party favored equal rights and gay unions for homosexuals. "But it's quite another thing that an ancient institution like marriage, that is fundamental for the organization of society, has to be exactly the same (for homosexuals)," he said.

STREET CELEBRATION

Dozens of activists gathered outside congress to celebrate.

"It's an indescribable emotion," Antonio Poveda, an activist for gay rights group Lambda, said. "I'm going to get married for the sake of activism, for love, and for a question of dignity."

Spain's bishops said in a statement after the vote that legalising gay marriage was "damaging to the common good" and threatened social order.

Gaspar Llamazares, leader of the small United Left coalition, said it was a boon for Spain.

"This is ... an important advance in what we might call the laicism of our country," he told Reuters.

The bill gives same-sex unions the same status as heterosexual ones, including inheritance rights, pensions and the adoption of children.

By a crushing margin, the lower house also approved a bill making divorce quicker and easier and allowing divorced parents to share children's custody.

Senior churchmen have criticized Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's liberal agenda, which also includes easing abortion restrictions and permitting stem cell research, but the moves are popular among young Spaniards, fewer than a fifth of whom are practising Catholics.

Zapatero, who insists relations with the church are good, said on Thursday he would respect Pope Benedict's views.

"If the new pope says something, I'm prepared to respect what he says," he told a news conference.

During the 1939 to 1975 Catholic dictatorship of Francisco Franco divorce, homosexuality and abortion were illegal. But since Franco's death the country has adopted some of the most liberal views in Europe and a survey last year showed 70 percent of the country supported gay marriage.

Former Pope John Paul warned Spanish bishops in January that an increasingly secular-minded Spain was moving toward "restriction of religious freedom and even promoting disdain or ignorance of religion."

I was quite astonished to read this, given Spain's rather staunch Catholic history. That such an overwhelming margin of the population supports it is even more surprising.

But that last quote from JP2 is utterly asinine. Yeah, having a secular government means restricting religious freedom...

[Imran Siddiqui]

Interesting this happened in Spain, but the historical movement is towards legalization of gay marriage. At least in Europe, it'll happen within the next 20 years where every EU country, with the exception of Ireland (IMO), will have gay marriage.

[Spiffor]

Don't forget Portugal, Greece and Poland too.

to Spain. This country is amazingly pointed toward the future

[Imran Siddiqui]

Oh, not seeing another thread for it... not gay marraige, but civil unions:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/21/nyregion/21civil.html?

Connecticut Approves Civil Unions for Gays
By WILLIAM YARDLEY

Published: April 21, 2005

HARTFORD, April 20 - Gov. M. Jodi Rell on Wednesday signed into law a measure allowing same-sex couples to enter into civil unions, making Connecticut the second state after Vermont to approve such unions and the first to do so without pressure from the courts.

"I think that it certainly bodes well for Connecticut that we didn't have to be ordered to do this," said Mrs. Rell, a Republican, who signed the bill about an hour after the Democratic-controlled Senate approved the measure by a three to one ratio. The House passed the bill last week 85 to 63.

Under the law, which takes effect on Oct. 1, couples in civil unions will essentially have all of the rights and protections the state provides married couples, from tax benefits and insurance coverage to hospital visiting rights to family leave from work.

The law also includes an amendment, added last week, that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman.

Mrs. Rell had encouraged the amendment, though she stopped short of saying whether her support for civil unions depended on it.

"I have said all along that I believe in no discrimination of any kind, and I think that this bill accomplishes that while at the same time preserving the traditional language that a marriage is between a man and a woman," the governor said outside her office after signing the bill.

The relative ease with which civil unions became law in Connecticut contrasts with the trend across the country.

Fourteen states have voted to ban gay marriage since last year. Earlier this month, Kansas voted to ban gay marriage and civil unions.

Yet in New England, Connecticut falls cleanly into a countertrend. Vermont approved civil unions in 2000, and Massachusetts last year began allowing gay couples to marry. Vermont and Massachusetts adopted new policies after courts ruled that gay couples were being discriminated against.

Connecticut also faces a discrimination lawsuit, supported by the same gay activists who pushed lawsuits in Vermont and Massachusetts, but the suit could be years from resolution. And many lawmakers said on Wednesday that their support for civil unions was less a defensive act against a potential court ruling than the obvious next step for a state with a 15-year history of expanding gay rights.

In 1990, the state passed a law that included gay people among those protected under a hate-crimes law. The next year, the state added protections in housing and employment laws. In 2000, the state made it easier for gay couples to adopt children.

"This is a different state in many ways," said Representative Michael P. Lawlor, a Democrat from East Haven, who was the bill's lead supporter in the House, which Democrats control 99 to 52. "I think Democrats and Republicans can disagree about the budget, but when it comes to basic human rights issues, we don't disagree that much. There was more evidence of that today."

Public opinion polls also showed support for civil unions. A poll released this month by Quinnipiac University showed that 56 percent of Connecticut voters supported civil unions and 37 percent were opposed. The poll showed that 53 percent opposed gay marriage and 42 percent supported it.

Some viewed the civil unions bill as a compromise. Earlier this year, the state's most prominent gay marriage activist group, Love Makes a Family, opposed the bill for civil unions, vowing to settle only for marriage.

A longtime lobbyist for gay rights, Betty Gallo, eventually broke from Love Makes a Family, saying she could not oppose increased rights for gay couples.

Loves Makes a Family later said it would end its opposition to the bill, and the measure then moved quickly out of committee to the Senate floor two weeks ago.

"We don't want to overplay the rights versus the status and dignity that come with marriage," said Anne Stanback, the president of Love Makes a Family. "But today we celebrate."

Ms. Gallo said on Wednesday that opposition to civil unions was mostly rooted in wariness of a lifestyle foreign to many people.

She said the bill's passage was brought about partly by the activists' strategy of having gay couples invite lawmakers and others into their homes, where such wariness "goes away when you know people and you go into their houses and have coffee and pastries."

The bill passed on the day that Roman Catholic clergymen in the state, and many parishioners, make their annual visit to the Capitol to lobby for their legislative agenda. This year the agenda included one item reflected in the stickers many wore: "Protect Marriage!"

Peter Wolfgang, a lobbyist and the public policy director for the Family Institute of Connecticut, which opposes civil unions, said his group would make them an issue in next year's election.

He and others said that polls misrepresent voter sentiment and that lawmakers are being deceived by lobbyists who support civil unions.

"This is basically the end of one phase and the beginning of another," Mr. Wolfgang said. "It's all about 2006."

[Jules]

Spain
Connecticut

[Fake Boris]

Spain going downwards
Threatening civilization

[chequita guevara]

Spain
Connecticut

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Jules
Spain
Connecticut

[Jules]

Homophobia

[Ben Kenobi]

Moving towards, Boris. It's a qualified statement.

I also notice how this socialist government responded when the Muslims in Spain asserted themselves. Rather than embracing a religion that allowed Spain to prosper, they reject them, and choose other masters.

I think they are digging their own grave here. Will these socialists be willing to stand up and defend their cherished institutions when pressed by others?

Yes, Spain has a Christian heritage. It also has a Muslim one.

[GePap]

The Church's long time allience with the Franco dictatorship greatly damaged their political power once the dictatorship fell. So while Spain may have once been the most Catholic of powers, right now the Church is nowhere near as powerful as it once was, and I doubt it will be regaining much power any time soon.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Which also shows, btw, the problems that Church runs into when it gets involved in politics.

[Boris Godunov]

Ah, BK...slippery slopeism at its worst.

If 70% of a country's population supports something, the government should act on it, since its job is to enact the will of the people. 'Nuff said.

[Ben Kenobi]

The question is a good one.

Are that 70% willing to stand up for what they believe?

Are they willing to fight for it?

[Boris Godunov]

Perhaps that's what they're doing?