Islamic Racism

During the 1990s, several of the city councils and autonomous communities of Spain had opened registers for civil unions that allowed unmarried couples of any sex to enjoy some local benefits. Also Spanish law allowed single people to adopt children. Thus a same-sex couple could de facto adopt a child, but the partner who was not the legal parent had no rights in case of breakup or decease.

On June 30, 2004, Spanish minister of justice Juan Fernando Lуpez Aguilar announced that the Spanish Congress of Deputies had provisionally approved a government plan for legislation to extend the right to marriage to same-sex couples. This would fulfill a promise made by Prime Minister Josй Luis Rodrнguez Zapatero the day of his inauguration.

At the same time, Minister Lуpez announced a proposition (introduced by the Convergиncia i Uniу party) to introduce legal status for both opposite- and same-sex common-law unions (parejas de hecho, "de facto unions"), and another to permit transgendered people to legally change their name and sex designation without the requirement of surgery.

The bill on same-sex marriage was approved by the Cabinet on October 1, 2004. It was submitted to Parliament on December 31 [1] [2], and passed by the lower house on April 21, 2005 [3] [4]. However, the bill was rejected by the Senate on June 22, 2005. It then returned to the lower house, which has an override power at its disposal, and on June 30, 2005, the lower house gave final approval to the bill with 187 yes, 147 no and four abstentions.

With the final approval of the law on July 2 - including royal assent and publication in the Boletнn Oficial del Estado - Spain became the third country in the world to formally legalize same-sex marriages nationwide, after the Netherlands and Belgium. The first gay wedding took place eight days after the approval of the law. It was celebrated in the council chamber in the Madrid suburb of Tres Cantos. Carlos Baturin and Emilio Menйndez were the first gay couple to be legally married in Spain.

On September 4, 2005, The spanish newspaper La Razуn published data from 273 of a total of 430 Offices of Civil Registry counting a total of 24 same-sex marriages to the date, from over 35000 marriages. The newspaper concludes that the data contradicts the justifications of the government about this law being a main priority of the legislature based on popular demand, and also the claims from gay collectives about how this law would directly benefit about 5-10 percent of the spanish poblation. [5]

Shortly after the law was passed, doubt arose about the legal status of marriage to non-Spaniards, when a Spaniard and an Indian national living in Catalonia were denied a marriage license on the grounds that India does not permit same-sex marriage. (365gay.com)

However, on July 22 and also in Catalonia, another judge married a Spanish woman with her Argentinian national partner. This judge disagreed with his colleague's decision and gave preference to the right of marriage over the fact that the laws of the country of origin of the other woman don't allow same-sex marriage.

On 27 July, the Junta de Fiscales de Sala, a body of lawyers that advises the national attorney general's office, issued an opinion that Spaniards can marry same-sex foreigners from countries that do not permit same-sex marriage. [6] A ruling published in the Official State Bulletin stated: a marriage between a Spaniard and a foreigner, or between foreigners of the same sex resident in Spain, shall be valid as a result of applying Spanish material law, even if the foreigner's