TheSilver@Bullet.com wrote:

Spanish protest gay marriage
Saturday, June 18, 2005 Posted: 2001 GMT (0401 HKT)

Protesters opposing a bill to legalize same sex marriage march
Saturday through the Plaza del Sol in Madrid.

MADRID, Spain (AP) -- Hundreds of thousands of people led by 20 Roman
Catholic bishops and conservative opposition leaders clogged downtown
Madrid on Saturday in a demonstration against the Socialist
government's bill to legalize gay marriage and permit gay couples to
adopt children.

Chanting in favor of the family and children's rights, the
demonstration, called by a lay Catholic group, the Spanish Forum for
the Family, was held in a festive atmosphere with participants waving
colorful balloons and Spanish and regional flags.

A half hour into the demonstration, organizers were claiming 1.5
million people had attended. But media eyewitnesses found the estimate
difficult to believe, with most putting the crowd size at some
500,000. No police figure was immediately available.

Madrid's Cardinal Jose Antonio Maria Rouco Varela was among 20 bishops
at the head of the rally, along with the opposition Popular Party's
leaders, Angel Acebes and Eduardo Zaplana.

Earlier Saturday, Deputy Socialist Prime Minister Maria Teresa
Fernandez de la Vega defended the law and accused protesters of
discrimination, saying their actions meant they wanted the rights they
enjoyed to be denied to others. The new law "does not oblige anyone to
do anything they don't want to do," she said.

Although the protest was backed by Spain's Episcopal Conference and
the Popular Party, there appeared to be serious divisions over the
issue within both groups. Neither the bishops' conference president,
Ricardo Blazquez, nor Popular Party leader Mariano Rajoy were present.

Also noticeable by their absence were the Popular Party's leaders in
Madrid -- regional government president Esperanza Aguirre and city
mayor Alberto Ruiz Gallardon.

The gay marriage bill is expected to become law in a matter of weeks.
It has been passed by the lower chamber of Parliament and will be
voted on next week by the Senate.

Opinion polls indicate a majority of Spaniards support the bill.

But demonstrators were angry at what they called the degradation of
the institution of marriage and the fact that gay couples may adopt.

"Marriage can only be between man and a woman," said Agustin Cruz, 41.
"It's a divine and natural law. Marriage of homosexuals is a lie. You
have to call things by their name. The first lie begins when you start
calling queers 'gays.' They're queers, it's not an insult, it's the
definition of that race of people."

Banners reading "Family=Man+Woman" and "A mother and father for every
child" could be seen up and down the demonstration, which was attended
by families and individuals of all ages. Handfuls of priests and nuns
mixed with lay protesters.

Chants for Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to
resign resounded continuously.

"This demonstration is the people's response to the government's
provocations," said Fr. Jose Ramon Velasco. We're not against
homosexuals but allowing them to marry degrades matrimony.

"And they shouldn't have the right to adopt because if those children
turn out to be homosexual, who will be to blame, the government?"

Velasco compared the bill to the beginnings of Nazi Germany in the
1930s.

"Back then the majority of people also backed Hitler just like the
majority back this law," he said. "I'm serious, give it time and it
will destroy the moral fiber of Spain and the West."

The Bishops' Conference last week said the gay marriage bill was the
biggest challenge to the church and its values in 2,000 years.

It was the first time the church has given such a display of
anti-government activism in more than 20 years.

Some 500 buses transported people to the protest from around country
while special flights brought people from the Canary Islands and
Spain's enclaves in Morocco.

The gay marriage bill is one of several controversial measures
introduced by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist
government since it ousted the Popular Party from office in elections
in March, 2004. Others included withdrawing Spanish troops from Iraq,
halting an education bill that would have made religion obligatory in
schools and scrapping a national water plan that envisaged hundreds of
dams and major water transfer construction projects.

The demonstration forced a complete halt to above-ground traffic in
most of central Madrid.

Another nice little gay post
WH