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Congratulations Portugal! As predicted, Portugal’s Parliament easily passed a marriage equality law earlier today. The vote was 125 to 99.
“This law rights a wrong,” Prime Minister Jose Socrates said in a speech to lawmakers, adding that it ”simply ends pointless suffering.”
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.
Portugal has offered civil unions to same-sex couples since 2001, but they did not provide some key benefits that come with marriage involving pensions, inheritance and the sharing of names. Married same-sex couples still will not be allowed to adopt, so the work continues.
43 Comments
Congratulations Portugal!!!!While the USA continues to slip into ‘second/third world’ status. Very sad.
Any comment yetfrom the Vatican? Off to look…
Can’t find anything immediatelybut as the Pope is gonna be there soon, you can bet he will address this!
Ratzi will get over his disappointmentA pretty new pair of red Prada pumps and a full length ermine cape, and he’ll be back to his usual giddy gay self.
still waitingfor you to explain that comment about USA.
That’s when folks from our two most liberal states CA and NYHave to travel to South Africa to be treated with a little RESPECT and as equals.
No, but…a Catholic lawyers group and some evangelicals are trying to get Mexico’s attorney general to overturn the Mexico City marriage law.
Invoking the Convention on the Rights of the Child is their way of perpetuating the discredited gay=pedophile lie. Yes they love us, or so they say.
It’s kinda hilarious that they’re falling back on a UN document, since most talibangicals hate everything about the UN. Cherry picking – it’s not just for the Bible any more!
No they don’t.They can travel to Iowa, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont or New Hampshire, and soon to the District of Columbia.
Even a cursory look at the past 10 years shows that we’ve got relationship recognition in 14 states, whereas we had it in only 1 ten years ago. Sure looks like improvement to me.
I have news for you about South Africa. They have marriage equality but also a president who believes HIV can be avoided by taking a shower after sex. The grass isn’t greener in South Africa. Despite the marriage law, there is good reason gay people aren’t flocking to South Africa.
federal recognitionis pretty key.
Sure you can get married in IA, MA, CT, VT, and NH but what about when you go home to a state that doesn’t even recognize that relationship?
The federal government also doesn’t recognize these marriages. Sure state recognition is important but so is federal recognition.
certainly you are correct in what you say,but again, how does going from zero to 14 states with relationship recognition in less than 15 years qualify as “USA continues to slip into ‘second/third world’ status” Looks to be sliding in a positive direction, not a negative direction.
WikipediaSomeone needs to updated the Gay Marriage wiki site.
We could go back and forth the glass is half full or half emptybottom line, it ain’t our f*ckin glass
i’m guessingthat as soon as the legislation is signed into law, someone will.
There is NO recognition of our RIGHTS endowed by our creatorOur Rights are what the straight majority ALLOW are our Rights, when they allow them, and they can be taken away anytime they choose.
Congratulations PortugalAnother embarrassment for the U.S. The notion that we were the world leader on social issues has finally been debunked. Its an absolute disgrace that this country continues to believe in discrimination and sexual segregation, including the moron in the White House.
2010 must be the beginning when all LGBT voters put the dems on final notice….”no more dependence on our support, financial or otherwise….either deliver the goods or face the consequences”. No more playing nice, no more political correctness. The gloves must come off this year and beyond and they need to be reminded every day we face inequality.
The US has NEVER been a leader on civil rights. Black artists used to flock to Europe to get respect that they were legally denied in the US. The US was NOT first to give women the vote, NOT first in ending slavery, NOT first on child labour etc.
It has always taken time for the US to adopt new trends in civil rights.
People really need to come to terms with the idea that gaining recognition of civil rights is a SLOW and painful process. Gay rights are going to take time because the public is not there yet. Anyone who cannot accept that its a slow process is going to be perpetually disappointed.
Such is the life of minoritieseverywhere. Being a minority means understanding that your freedom, no matter the social conventions at work, are always at the whim of the majority. At no point in time will you ever have the opportunity to simply stop standing up for your rights.
….but they still do not allow GAY adoption.
from the song from the Boy from OZIt’s sung to a lover dying of AIDS
“Love is all we have for now, what we don’t have is time”
So it’s not mere disappointment, I won’t see equality.
Bravo, PortugalThere’s a lot of wisdom in the comments to this article. Yes, civil rights are won slowly, but it’s important not to give up the fight. I’m so grateful for the bloggers who keep us informed (and entertained) and for all the people out there fighting. I’m old and none of this will affect my life much, but I’ve never wanted anything so badly in all my life as gay civil rights and marriage equality.
It appalls me that Christians (and I consider myself one) still trumpet the Leviticus passages (while cleverly overlooking the ones they find inconvenient) and never seem to realize that these man-made laws were created in the bronze age by people with a very tribal outlook. Have we learned nothing?
seems to be a patternthe same thing happened in the netherlands. it took several more years after marriage quality was a reality before laws were changed allowing adoption. i’m sure it all goes back to that weird notion that you can “recruit” or “create” a gay person, and so children must be shielded. of course that’s a ridiculous notion, since the vast majority of gays were created and reared by heterosexuals, but when did logic ever get in the way of a good spot of bigotry?
Wow. No wonder you support Obama.
And if the clothing stores are closedhe can always find himself an adorable little altar boy or Swiss Guard.
Um, yeah.That and the massively high and scary rate that men attack and rape lesbians in South Africa to “cure” them.
Also the fact that if people become gay,that’s not a bad thing.
Women, particularly Lesbians in South Africaare rape victims waiting to happen
South Africa is one of the most dangerous places for a Lesbian to be, second only to places under Sharia law.
They don’t love usAt least not where they have the power to oppress us without consequences.
In Nigeria, they actively, with the assistance of the Anglicans, lobbied for draconian anti-gay laws.
Josephine Baker went to France for recognitionand Lesbians such as Natalie Clifford Barney, Romaine Brooks, Gertrude Stein, Alice Toklas, Sylvia Beach, Djuna Barnes, Janet Flanner and many others fled the states for freedom from the last period of theocratic grabs for political power in the US(we got prohibition and decency codes out of that one)
The Ratzi-Empire will strike backThe Vatican condemned the 2005 legalization of gay marriage in neighboring Spain and has called for the ouster of Socialists who supported the law.
Honestly
Those are states (and small ones at that), not the nation. At the national level, LGBT people get next to NO recognition of any kind except as crime victims. Even countries like Uruguay treat their gay citizens better than the US. In terms of respecting the rights and dignity of LGBT people, the United States ranks down somewhere close to the former Soviet Republics and the less extreme Muslim countries.
certainly the federal governmentis far from where it needs to be on our issues – i complain about that daily. but you can’t fairly compare changing marriage law in a huge federalist country like the usa to changing it in non-federalist countries like, say, england or the netherlands where marriage law is only at the federal level to begin with. we have 50 mini countries we’re dealing with here, plus a federal over-structure.
so, going back to the original question of this thread, is the usa sinking into 3rd world status, i’d say “no”, that we’re marginally keeping pace because we are in fact actively improving our lot. sure we should use advances in other countries as pressure to hasten advances in our own, but ignoring real advances and calling it backsliding seems needlessly divisive to me.
Yep, I was reading that todayrelationship recognition is not a problem in Europe but gay adoption is a very big issue.
Add the abolition of the sodomy crime laws to that list, GeekYou are absolutely right.
Speaking of gay rights specifically, sodomy was never illegal in China.
Nor has any state in the US, to my mind leading (and I think that would include all of the states) on any gay issues.
Elections matterI never thought this could happen, because of the influence of churches etc. It’s obvious how much having a supportive party in power meant. The Democratic party should become supportive like that, regardless of the South, which is already lost to them, pretty much, and put SSMs in their party platform.
Many Black artists and inter racial couples fled to france in the 50′s
Even earlier than thatmany of the Harlem Renaissance writers from the 1920′s fled to France during the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930′s.
I have to say, SciFi Geek hit the nail on the head with that one; the United States has never been a leader in civil rights.
Even the first program that could loosely be called “affirmative action” didn’t originate in the US but in India.
Through WW11 most Americans returned until post war
But on the other hand…What you say is perfectly true. But it’s equally true that the United States has always laid claim to much loftier ideals than, say, Portugal. ”Liberty and justice for all,” “equal justice under law,” “a beacon of democracy,” “all men are created equal,” “a shining city on a hill” and on and on. It is not at all unreasonable to hold the US to a much higher standard, especially when it so signally fails to live up to the ideals and principles that supposedly make it the greatest country in the world.
The USA should absolutely be held to the standard it supposes to set for the world. This is regardless of whether Portugal or any other county makes similar claims. But, this is a different question than the one originating this thread.
Ok, here goes LurleenThe Obama administration now supports the full concept of Indefinate Detention. Meaning that the rule of law no longer exists as it once did. What this means is that the President can now lock you and I up until we die with no trial ever….think about this for a moment. Rather Stalinist and chills my bones to the marrow.
Healthcare: well, put down the remote and read a few blogs about where this is going. The USA now ranks somewhere around #30 in life expectancy and around #10 in the world for quality of life and it keeps slipping every year.
GLBTQ rights: My relationship does not exist on the federal level. It is recognized by 3 states, namely CA, MA and NY only.
Never ending global war
Spying on everyday americans without warrants is now legal
BILLIONS for wallstreet while unemployment is over 10% and most economists estimate the real rate is somewhere around 20% when you account for all the poeple who have simply stopped looking for work. The middle class is simply disappearing before our eyes.
I can go on and on and on…..
Congratulations Portugal/The U.S. slipping into 3rd world statusOMG Lurlene you really have to ask how America is getting worst? I mean positive thinking is one thing but denial is completely another. Lets get right down to the saddest truth and that is what the majority of the Americans when given the opportunity to vote on our human/civil rights chose to take them away or make certain we will never have them! This includes states that are considered to be liberal! Washington has been the only state whose people have chosen to allow gay rights to progress and we still do not know if we were to put marriage to the test there if we would be shot down! Then there are the things already mentioned, the recent supreme court ruling which will virtually guarantee corporate rule and the enslavement of the American worker, the loss in Mass. Universal healthcare will either never happen or be so watered down that those who do not have it now will probably continue to not have it. Please you cannot be serious in asking such a question.
Van; D’ye thing that maybe the Administration was all smoke and mirrors?There were warning signs of all of this during the campaign.
Not the LesbiansWith the nitable exception of Janet Flanner, most of them stayed; though Barney and Brooks, both pro Mussolini, went to Italy…