'N Touch News Magazine Issue #67, February 2010

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20 | February 2010 | Issue 67 | ntouchaz.com
worLd NewS
Portuguese parliament votes
to permit gay marriage
By Barry Hatton
LISBON, Portugal (AP)
– Portugal’s parliament
passed a bill Jan.8 that
would make the predominantly
Catholic nation
the sixth in Europe to
permit gay marriage.
Conservative President
Anibal Cavaco Silva is
thought unlikely to veto
the Socialist government’s bill, which won
the support of all left-of-center parties. His
ratification would allow the first gay marriage
ceremonies to take place in April — a month
before Pope Benedict XVI is due on an official
visit to Portugal.
Right-of-center parties opposed the change
and sought a national referendum on the
issue, but their proposal was rejected and the
government’s bill was passed by 125 votes to
99.
Gay rights campaigners applauded from
the galleries, hugged and kissed outside the
building and ate wedding cake.
“This law rights a wrong,” Prime Minister Jose
Socrates said in a speech to lawmakers, adding
that it “simply ends pointless suffering.”
Socrates said the measure is part of his effort
to modernize Portugal where homosexuality
was a crime until 1982. Two years ago his
government lifted Portugal’s ban on abortion,
despite church opposition.
Gay marriage is currently permitted in
Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden
and Norway. Canada, South Africa and six
U.S. states also permit it.
The bill removes a reference in the current
law to marriage being between two people of
different sexes.
“It’s a slight change to the law, it’s true,”
Socrates, the prime minister, said. “But it
is a very important and
symbolic step towards
fully ensuring respect for
values that are essential
in any democratic, open
and tolerant society:
the values of freedom,
equality and nondiscrimination.”
Like neighboring Spain,
which introduced same-sex marriages four
years ago, Portugal is an overwhelmingly
Roman Catholic country and previous efforts
to introduce gay marriage ran into strong
resistance from religious groups and conservative
lawmakers.
Paulo Corte-Real, head of a lobby group
called Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual
Intervention, said Portugal had become
a pioneering country in gay rights.
“This is a historic moment. We just hope (the
bill) gets ratified quickly,” he said.
Socrates said a referendum was not necessary
because the gay marriage proposal was
included in the Socialist Party’s manifesto in
last September’s general election, when it was
returned to power.
In 2001, a law allowed “civil unions” between
same-sex couples which granted them certain
legal, tax and property rights. However, it
did not allow couples to take their partner’s
name, inherit their possessions nor their state
pension, which is permitted in marriages.
A proposal from the Left Bloc and Green
Party allowing gay couples to adopt children
was voted down Friday. Gay campaigners said
they would continue to fight for gay couples’
parental rights.
The main opposition Social Democratic Party
proposed granting non-married cohabiting
couples of the same sex more rights, as in
France, but its bill also was rejected.
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