Gay marriage in Spain? YES! (America, mission, church, abortion)

[Bright-ness' Shadow]

Zapatero Steps Up

By Geoff Pingree and Lisa Abend, The American Prospect. Posted April 21, 2005.
Complete article from Alternet
Legalized gay marriage -- in Spain? That hardly begins to describe the new prime minister's dramatic first year in office.

Zapatero’s heritage is not insignificant. The man whom some Americans consider this generation’s Neville Chamberlain is, for the people who elected him, more activist than appeaser. In his first year in office, Zapatero has pulled Spain’s troops out of Iraq, dismantled the obstacles to the European constitution that his predecessor, José María Aznar, erected, and led a crackdown on Islamist terrorism that has yielded hundreds of arrests. But even more striking are the social changes that his government has initiated within a remarkably brief period of time: gay marriage and adoption are now legal, domestic violence laws are tougher, and long-standing subsidies to the Catholic Church are being eradicated in an attempt to create a genuinely secular state. Some read these changes as little more than leftist interventionism, but others see them as the first serious attempt to honor the promise of civil rights in Spain’s 1978 constitution and a long overdue effort to eradicate the lingering effects of the regime that killed Zapatero’s grandfather, along with hundreds of thousands of other Spaniards.

This April marks the anniversary of Zapatero’s first year in office, and to say that the year has been a remarkable one would be an understatement. ...
Consider the plight of women. Under Francisco Franco -- and remember, his rule lasted until his death in 1975 -- they had no independent legal status. They could neither work outside the home nor open a bank account without permission from their husbands or fathers. Divorce and contraception were illegal, and domestic violence was not a crime. Once the dictator died, the harsher elements of his gender policies slowly disappeared: Equality before the law was guaranteed in the 1978 constitution; divorce became legal in 1981; abortions for women who had been raped or whose pregnancies endangered their health were permitted after 1985; and, in time, increasing numbers of women entered universities and the workplace.

Last October, Spain became only the third European country to legalize gay marriage, and only the second to allow gay married couples to adopt children (Holland was the first nation to permit marriage between persons of the same sex, in 2000; Belgium followed in 2003). The Spanish version of the law is sweeping: It grants gays and lesbians all the rights affiliated with marriage, including rights of inheritance, pensions, and nationality.

How can you take freedom and rights away once the populace tastes them!!!!!

[Druidus]

One great step for freedom!

[ayani]

wow! i hadn't heard of this! Mr. Zapatero's politics and reforms should stand as an example to the rest of the world, in my opinion.

[michel]

Originally Posted by pah

Zapatero Steps Up

By Geoff Pingree and Lisa Abend, The American Prospect. Posted April 21, 2005.
Complete article from Alternet
Legalized gay marriage -- in Spain? That hardly begins to describe the new prime minister's dramatic first year in office.

How can you take freedom and rights away once the populace tastes them!!!!!

You can't. But I have always suggested that people stand well clear of the pendulum's overswing when Franco died.
And as you say, Pah, one timorous step out of the shade, and the populace all get sunburned. Wait two generations, and they will be someway back to where they were.