Spain: Gay Marriage Legal

By Corinne Abrams
Sun Online, July 1, 2005

The Spanish Parliament today passed a bill to legalise gay marriage, making the country the third in the world to officially recognise same-sex unions.

Activists cheered as lawmakers announced their decision to make the unions legal as well as approving adoptions for gay couples and changes in inheritance laws.

Couples will be allowed to marry as soon as the law is published in the official government registry, in around two weeks, the parliament's press office said.

Holland and Belgium are the only other two countries that recognise gay marriage.

Canada's House of Commons passed legislation on Tuesday that could legalise gay marriage by the end of July.

"We were not the first, but I am sure we will not be the last. After us will come many other countries, driven, ladies and gentlemen, by two unstoppable forces: freedom and equality," Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told the parliament.

Earlier, a Catholic group called the Spanish Family Forum, presented lawmakers with a petition bearing 600,000 signatures as a last-minute protest. But polls suggest the majority of Spaniards were in favour of the move.

A survey released in May by pollster Instituto Opina said 62 per cent supported the Government's action on gay marriage, and 30 percent opposed it.

Note from Mary: Canada had expected to be the third country to legalize same-sex marriage since Bill C-38 was passed two days ago in the House of Commons, but it has yet to go to the Liberal-dominated Senate, where it is expected to be passed within a few weeks.

Belgium and the Netherlands are the only other countries to have legalized same-sex marriage at this point, but many others are in the process.

See Gay Marriage Throughout The World for details on the status in other countries.