Spain takes same-sex
marriage
and speedy divorce in
its stride
From the Web, January
29, 2008
Madrid, Spain -- A generation
ago, traditional families were sacred in Spain. General Francisco Franco
liked them big and Catholic, and gave hefty cash prizes to parents with the most
copious broods.
These days a civics course in Spain's public schools teaches modern families can
be quite different -- single parents with kids, or same-sex couples raising
adopted children.
This and a host of other social reforms have given traditionally Catholic Spain
a striking new look, and while the clergy is fighting it, the general public
seems to be taking the change in its stride. As Spain heads into a general
election on March 9, gay rights are low on the priorities list.
Instead, alongside worries about renewed Basque separatist violence, the economy
is the issue -- inflation above 4 per cent, skyrocketing interest rates on
mortgages, and a general sense that one of Europe's top-tier economies is
cooling.
This may explain why the conservative Popular Party, unseated in 2004, is
running neck-and-neck with the ruling Socialists in opinion polls.
Capitalises
The area in which Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero
decisively outpolls his Popular Party challenger, Mariano Rajoy, is social
reform, and Zapatero capitalises on it.
When he called the vote in mid-January, he looked back on his four years in
power and said he had delivered on a pledge of socially sensitive governance.
"I kept my word," Zapatero said.
Spain is one of the few countries that grant full legal status to same-sex
couples, including adoption rights.
Zapatero also engineered a law granting financial aid to families caring for
handicapped or elderly relatives, amnestied 600,000 undocumented aliens, and
created special courts to prosecute spousal violence.
Half the members of Zapatero's Cabinet, and half the Socialist candidates
running for legislative seats, are women.
All this is in stunning contrast to the Spain forged under Franco's
dictatorship, and is seen by political scientist Ramon Cotarelo as a reaction to
having spent nearly four decades as the continent's repressed, backward cousin.
"Spaniards like to come across as progressive. They think that this way
they remedy the inferiority complex they have with respect to the rest of
Europe," said Cotarelo, who teaches at Complutense University in Madrid.
An Instituto Opina poll published the day after the gay marriage law passed in
2005 showed 62 per cent in favour and 30 per cent against.
Only a few thousand gay couples in this nation of 45 million have married, and
Cotarelo said the change has probably not angered many moderate conservatives, a
key consideration in a race where centrist votes are crucial.
The Roman Catholic church, however, is furious.
At a church-convened rally on December 30 in Madrid to plug traditional family
values, bishop after bishop stood up to denounce Zapatero.
A crowd estimated to number at least 150,000 roared in approval when Pope
Benedict XVI appeared live on giant TV screens from Rome and said marriage is
the unbreakable union of man and woman.
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