SPAIN: On the 400th anniversary of the publication of the first edition of Cervantes' classic novel Don Quixote yesterday, a Spanish newspaper published a cartoon entitled "Four Hundred Years of Waiting" depicting the brave knight and his faithful servant, Sancho Panza, riding into the sunset together with tin cans tied to their horse's tail and a "Just Married" sign on their backs.
It was not only El Mundo's way of celebrating Don Quixote's anniversary, but also the approval in the Spanish congress of a Bill legalising gay marriages to bring an end to the years of waiting for many hundreds of homosexual couples.
Many other papers carried photos of an embarrassed-looking justice minister, Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar, receiving an enthusiastic kiss of gratitude from the openly homosexual Madrid city councillor, Pedro Zerola, surrounded by a crowd of cheering gays and lesbians.
Partying and celebrations began as soon as the Bill passed through the lower chamber, and continued throughout the night in the bars, cafés and streets of Chueca, the gay area of Madrid.
It has taken the socialists just one year to keep two of the most controversial promises of their election manifesto in which they pledged to make Spain only the third European country, after Holland and Belgium, where gay marriages are legal and where homosexual couples can adopt children. They also pledged to reform the divorce law to make it quicker and easier.
Several right-wing Popular Party deputies have said they are not opposed to legalising homosexual partnerships, but are against using the word "marriage" because of its religious connotations. Yesterday 133 PP deputies, and three from other parties, voted against the Bill which, nevertheless, passed through the lower house of the Cortes with 183 votes in favour, including one former PP minister, Celia Villalobos, who broke ranks.
The divorce reform Bill had a much easier passage, passing through the Cortes with only five negative votes and with PP deputies abstaining. The new law will permit a couple to divorce after only three months of marriage, will remove the current requirement for a legal separation one year before divorcing, and allow shared custody of children.
At present divorce is expensive even if it is by mutual consent, as it requires two separate court appearances with lawyers and barristers at both. It is estimated that almost 40 per cent of the 200,000 marriages in Spain every year end in divorce.
But gay couples should not plan their weddings immediately. The Bill must first pass through the senate, where the Socialists have a much slimmer majority. PP only needs the votes of four senators from other parties to defeat the measure and force it back to the congress for a second reading, possible amendments and a final vote.
But if all goes to plan, gay couples will be able to marry and adopt children by Gay Pride Day on June 28th. Currently, one half of a gay couple can adopt a child as a single person while their partner has no rights or custody over the children. And gay couples do not have the same pension and inheritance rights as married couples.
But not everyone is happy with the new law for same sex marriages, and not surprisingly, the loudest complaints have come from the church.
The Bishops' Conference denounced it as "radically unjust and against the common good" of heterosexual families. "Fabricating false money devalues the genuine money," they said.
