Spain to approve gay marriage in 2 weeks
From Reuters on the Web, September 20, 2004
MADRID, Sept. 19 -- Spain's Socialist government will approve gay marriage at an October 1 cabinet meeting, a party leader says, putting into action a plan that has enraged church leaders in this traditionally Catholic country.
"The cabinet ... is going to approve the change to the civil code so that people of the same sex can marry.
Why are we doing this? Because people have to be in charge of their own destiny," Jose Blanco, a leading member of the Socialist party told a rally in the northwestern region of Galicia on Sunday.
The reform will then have to be approved by parliament.
Spain is increasingly liberal, with almost 70 percent supporting gay marriage, according to a recent survey.
But 95 percent of the population is registered as Catholic and the country was ruled for some four decades to 1975 by dictator General Francisco Franco, a staunch Catholic who banned homosexuality and divorce.
The country's bishops have fought the new government's liberal agenda, calling the planned law "dangerous" and Pope John Paul gave Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero a stern lecture on morals earlier this year.
Nine other European Union countries have some provision for recognising those in committed same-sex relationships.
In the United States, the fight over gay marriage has become a key election-year issue after officials in several states used ambiguities in the law to begin marrying gay couples.
On Friday Spain's government approved a law to make divorce quicker and easier and has said that later in its four-year term it will look at making abortion more accessible.
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