Gay marriages in Spain

Congress holds a debate today in what is the first step towards legalisation of marriages between homosexuals in Spain and also towards a law aimed at recognising the rights of stable couples who live together but are not married.P

The majority of members of parliament are expected to appove four motions (proposed by the Catalan parties, CiU and ERC, and the leftist Izquierda Verde) to give unmarried couples the same sorts of rights as married couples, and another motion (proposed by the Socialist Party and heavily criticised by the Catholic Church) to approve the procedure which should lead up to the eventual legalisation of weddings between homosexual couples. The Government hopes to have pushed through legislation recognising the legality of gay marriages, and so fulfill another electoral promise, by the beginning of 2005.