Portugal expected to legalize gay marriage

Lisbon - The parliament of strongly-Catholic Portugal was expected to approve homosexual marriage in an initial debate on Friday, press reports said Thursday. The law, which does not allow homosexual couples to adopt children, was also expected to obtain definitive approval after passing through a parliamentary commission.

The law would be approved with the votes of leftist parties, obtaining at least a narrow majority, the daily Diario de Noticias reported.

Prime Minister Jose Socrates' government tabled the law proposal in late 2009, honoring a pledge made by his Socialist Party ahead of the September legislative elections, in which Socrates won a second consecutive term as prime minister.

During his previous term, the government had still rejected proposals from far-left parties to legalize homosexual marriage in the socially-conservative country.

The draft law came under criticism from several quarters. The opposition conservatives are proposing "civil unions" for homosexuals instead of marriages. Gay activists, on the other hand, see the law as discriminatory, because it does not include the right of adoption.

Activists close to the Catholic church collected 91,000 signatures requesting a referendum on the subject, which was not expected to be approved by parliament.

On the whole, however, Portugal's Catholic Church has been moderate in its criticism in comparison with neighboring Spain.

In Spain, church-sponsored rallies brought hundreds of thousands of people to the streets to protest a reform which finally gave gays full marriage rights, including adoption, in 2005.

The Portuguese law was expected to be approved by May, when Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled to visit Portugal.

Attitudes towards homosexuality had become increasingly "normalized especially since the 1990s," sociologist Pedro Vasconcelos said, predicting that "homophobia" would become "a hidden prejudice."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/302524,portugal-expected-to-legalize-gay-marriage.html.