So what's Benny the Rat going to do?

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's parliament gave initial approval to a law
legalizing gay marriage on Thursday in a move likely to rekindle
conflict with a Catholic Church that has just elected a new conservative
pope.

A packed public gallery erupted in cheers and applause as the speaker
announced approval of the Socialist government's proposal, making Spain
the third European country to legalese gay marriage.

"It's unfair to be a second-class citizen because of love," Socialist
legislator Carmen Monton said. "Spain joins the vanguard of those
defending full equality for gays and lesbians."

The proposal, part of a raft of liberal social legislation by the
government, has outraged Spain's Catholic church and is unlikely to
please Pope Benedict XVI, elected on Tuesday.

So what's Benny the Rat going to do?

---
Spain Approves Gay Marriage Despite Church Anger

Thu Apr 21, 2005 02:56 PM ET

By Emma Ross-Thomas

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's parliament gave initial approval to a law
legalizing gay marriage on Thursday in a move likely to rekindle
conflict with a Catholic Church that has just elected a new conservative
pope.

A packed public gallery erupted in cheers and applause as the speaker
announced approval of the Socialist government's proposal, making Spain
the third European country to legalese gay marriage.

"It's unfair to be a second-class citizen because of love," Socialist
legislator Carmen Monton said. "Spain joins the vanguard of those
defending full equality for gays and lesbians."

The proposal, part of a raft of liberal social legislation by the
government, has outraged Spain's Catholic church and is unlikely to
please Pope Benedict XVI, elected on Tuesday.

The Pope, formerly the Vatican's top doctrinal guardian, has said
same-sex unions are destroying the concept of marriage and eroding
Europe's social identity.

The bill, passed by 183-136, still needs Senate approval and a final
reading in the lower house, but it is widely expected to become law.

However, Spain's top judicial authority has said in a non-binding ruling
that gay marriage is unconstitutional, which could encourage a legal
challenge.

Only the conservative opposition Popular Party and a Christian democrat
party from Catalonia opposed the bill.

Popular Party spokesman Eduardo Zaplana said his party favored equal
rights and gay unions for homosexuals. "But it's quite another thing
that an ancient institution like marriage, that is fundamental for the
organization of society, has to be exactly the same (for homosexuals),"
he said.

STREET CELEBRATION

Dozens of activists gathered outside congress to celebrate.

"It's an indescribable emotion," Antonio Poveda, an activist for gay
rights group Lambda, said. "I'm going to get married for the sake of
activism, for love, and for a question of dignity."

Spain's bishops said in a statement after the vote that legalizing gay
marriage was "damaging to the common good" and threatened social order.

Gaspar Llamazares, leader of the small United Left coalition, said it
was a boon for Spain.

"This is ... an important advance in what we might call the laicism of
our country," he told Reuters.

The bill gives same-sex unions the same status as heterosexual ones,
including inheritance rights, pensions and the adoption of children.

By a crushing margin, the lower house also approved a bill making
divorce quicker and easier and allowing divorced parents to share
children's custody.

Senior churchmen have criticized Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez
Zapatero's liberal agenda, which also includes easing abortion
restrictions and permitting stem cell research, but the moves are
popular among young Spaniards, fewer than a fifth of whom are practicing
Catholics.

Zapatero, who insists relations with the church are good, said on
Thursday he would respect Pope Benedict's views.

"If the new pope says something, I'm prepared to respect what he says,"
he told a news conference.

During the 1939 to 1975 Catholic dictatorship of Francisco Franco
divorce, homosexuality and abortion were illegal. But since Franco's
death the country has adopted some of the most liberal views in Europe
and a survey last year showed 70 percent of the country supported gay
marriage.

Former Pope John Paul warned Spanish bishops in January that an
increasingly secular-minded Spain was moving toward "restriction of
religious freedom and even promoting disdain or ignorance of religion."



---
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=reutersEdge&storyID=8256794