SPANISH P.M. PROMISES GAY
MARRIAGE
Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero promised to legalize same-sex marriage during an April 15 speech to Parliament.
'It is time to bring to an end, once and for all, the intolerable discrimination still suffered by many Spaniards exclusively by virtue of their sexual preferences,' he said.
'Homosexuals and transsexuals deserve the same public consideration as heterosexuals and have the right to live freely the life that they themselves have chosen.
'We will recognize, on an equal basis, their right to marriage, with the consequent effects on labor rights, inheritance and social security protection.'
At present, full marriage is offered to same-sex couples only in Belgium, the Netherlands and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. It will become available in the U.S. state of Massachusetts on May 17.
Several European nations offer same-sex registered partnerships that provide nearly every right and obligation of marriage.
FRENCH MAYOR
TO PERFORM
GAY WEDDING
The mayor of Bégles, France, plans to perform a same-sex marriage in June. Bégles is a suburb of Bordeaux.
There's nothing in French law to prohibit the marriage, Noël Mamére says, and gays should have full equal rights.
'This act is the continuation of a struggle I have fought for a long time—for equal rights and against all discrimination,' he told Britain's The Guardian. 'Homosexuals in this country, as in many others, suffer from a great deal of discrimination. They are the last category of French people who are banned from getting married.
'There's nothing extraordinary about marrying two people of the same sex in the European Union,' he said, 'because Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands have done it already and the new Spanish prime minister ... has already put it in his political program.'
Actually, Sweden does not offer same-sex marriage but rather gay registered partnership that provides the same rights. France has offered gay and straight couples marriage-like civil unions since 1999 but they lack certain matrimonial rights in areas such as adoption and economic benefits.
In addition to Belgium and the Netherlands, full marriage is available to same-sex couples in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. It will become available in the U.S. state of Massachusetts on May 17. Several other nations offer same-sex domestic partnerships or civil unions that include up to 99 percent of the rights and obligations of matrimony.
Mamére, who also is a member of France's National Assembly and vice president of the Urban Community of Bordeaux, plans to marry the gay couple on June 5.
PORTUGAL TO
PROTECT GAYS
The commission reviewing Portugal's Constitution approved adding a ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation April 23.
'Portugal is now one of the few countries in the world that include nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in the fundamental law of the nation,' said João Paulo, editor of the Web site PortugalGay.PT.
Other nations that ban antigay discrimination constitutionally include Canada, Ecuador, South Africa, Switzerland and, possibly, Fiji. At last report, Fiji's government had announced it wanted to repeal the protections because it had no idea how they ended up in the 1997 constitution in the first place.
