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Gay Pride in Madrid

by TChris

My stay in Madrid happened to coincide with the city's annual gay and lesbian pride festival. From my balcony yesterday, I had a great view of the colorful parade, and of the thousands of onlookers lining the street. The celebration of unity and diversity was inspiring, but I was most taken by the absence of protest. There were no religious fundamentalists attempting to disrupt the parade, no counter-demonstrators claiming that any acceptance of LGBT rights will bring about the destruction of society. Just people enjoying the opportunity to support the right of every human being to live without oppression or discrimination.

Gay marriage, such a divisive topic in the United States, has been legal in Spain for about a year. The wild claims in the U.S. that gay marriage is a threat to the family are belied by all the heterosexual couples in Spain whose marriages have survived nicely since the law was changed. There are, of course, Spaniards who oppose equal rights for gay couples: a judge was recently censured for refusing to perform same sex marriages. But experience shows (in Spain as in Massachusetts) that gay couples function as family units just as well as straight couples. In fact, Spain recently had its first gay divorce -- just one, of the 1,300 same sex marriages performed in the last year. Let those who think that gay marriage destroys families explain that statistic.

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    Re: Gay Pride in Madrid (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Jul 02, 2006 at 11:30:08 AM EST
    Wish I'd been there. I also wonder what the divorce rate is in Spain. I believe that Massachusetts has the lowest divorce rate in the U.S... another statistic for the gay-marriage-destroys-families group to explain.

    Re: Gay Pride in Madrid (none / 0) (#2)
    by cpinva on Sun Jul 02, 2006 at 12:48:44 PM EST
    um, those who claim that same-gender marriage will destroy heterosexual marriage never actually say how it will destroy it, or hadn't you noticed that? in fact, what it boils down to is religion, the untalked about elephant in congress, and everywhere else that same-gender marriage is villified. take that out of the equation, and you're not left with much. of course, there is that pesky "establishment clause" thing!

    Re: Gay Pride in Madrid (none / 0) (#3)
    by Edger on Sun Jul 02, 2006 at 02:04:26 PM EST
    those who claim that same-gender marriage will destroy heterosexual marriage never actually say how it will destroy it It's contagious isn't it? Besides, it takes strights out of circulation cuz it's a "lifestyle choice", right? So it corrupts the kids cuz they're too young to know what turns 'em on, right? And if that ain't enuff, Gay marriage is so evil it taints the straight ones:
    ... when San Francisco began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples Social Security instructed its offices nationwide not to accept any marriage certificates from San Francisco as proof of identification.
    Not only that, the pope says it's part of the 'Ideology of Evil'. The pope should know about evil, right? Just one more battle in the "War on Terra..." Right...

    Re: Gay Pride in Madrid (none / 0) (#4)
    by HK on Mon Jul 03, 2006 at 03:12:35 PM EST
    I think all Europeans are more tolerant regarding LGBT issues. Of course, there are incidents which suggest otherwise, but in general, I think there is a lot less animosity. I do not understand the 'threat to hetrosexual marriage' argument. I am a married hetrosexual and the legality of other people's marriages does not and will never have a bearing on how I view my own relationship. Equally, I am not offended when other hetrosexuals choose not to get married. Marriage is a choice. To suggest that other people's personal choices will have an impact on my life is bizarre. I love being married. I think the term 'soulmate' is overused, but I would describe my husband as my best friend. We married 9 months and 1 day after we started dating (everybody was shocked when they realised I wasn't pregnant) and that was 9 years ago. I am unreligious but totally enthusiastic about marriage and if adults want to do it, they should be able to. About a year ago, there was talk from the UK government about measures to make it more difficult to divorce (to be honest, I don't know if it came to anything). I am also against this. Just as it should be a free choice whether to marry, it should be a free choice whether a couple wishes to divorce. Rather than reduce divorce rates, I think this will just make a stressful time worse for those involved, including children.