Portuguese parliament approves same-sex marriage

Lisbon - The parliament of Catholic Portugal approved same-sex marriage in an initial debate Friday, with Prime Minister Jose Socrates defending the move as a normal step towards a more egalitarian society. Parliament approved the law with a clear majority, with leftist and ecologist parties supporting it while the two conservative parties voted against.

The law, which does not include the right of adoption for gay couples, will now pass through a parliamentary commission. It was expected to win definitive approval before Pope Benedict XVI visits Portugal in May.

Socrates said the law "put an end to pointless suffering" of homosexuals and constituted "another phase in the long history of democracies against discrimination."

Socrates rejected criticism that not including the right of adoption discriminated against homosexuals, arguing that marriage and adoption were "two totally different questions."

Today's Portuguese young people could hardly believe that homosexuality had been a crime in the country until 1982, the premier observed.

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 lost his absolute majority in parliament.

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

The draft law came under criticism from several quarters. The main opposition conservative Social Democrats proposed "civil unions" to preserve marriage as a union between man and woman.

Gay activists, on the other hand, accused the government of only granting them "second-class marriages" without the right of adoption.

Activists close to the Catholic church collected 91,000 signatures requesting a referendum on the subject.

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.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/302736,portuguese-parliament-approves-same-sex-marriage.html.