Spain Celebrates Decade Of Marriage

This weekend an estimated 1.5M attended Madrid Pride, which fell on the tenth anniversary of same-sex marriage in Spain.

The country’s parliament and senate passed the law on June 30th 2005, with it coming into force three days later on July 3rd. Two weeks later, on July 11th, Spain’s first ever same-sex wedding took place when couple Emilio Menéndez and Carlos Baturín, who had been together for 30 years, married in Madrid. The law made Spain only the third country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage, after the Netherlands and Belgium and 17 days ahead of Canada. Despite Spain’s reputation as a traditionalist and religious country, 66 percent of Spaniards supported the law at the time, even amid protests from the Roman Catholic Church that it would "devalue marriage". The law was strongly opposed by the opposition Popular Party. When conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy took office in 2011, he professed his opposition to same-sex marriage, but said he would wait and see what the country's Constitutional Court would rule on the issue. The law was upheld by the court, with eight supporting votes and three against. The conservative government said it would abide by the ruling and the law would not be repealed.

Madrid will host World Pride 2017.

(Via JMG reader GanymedeRenard)