Spain to celebrate ten years of same-sex marriage

TOMORROW marks the 10th anniversary of the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Spain, coinciding with pride celebrations held throughout the country.
The law was approved at the Congress on June 30 2005, and written by the PSOE socialist government led by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who modified the Civil Code to allow same-sex couples to marry and also adopt children. Spain was the fourth country in the world to legalise these unions.
Since it went into force on July 3 2005, the marriage equality law has seen a total of 31,610 marriages, according to the data released by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
The first couple to get married under the law were Emilio Menendez and Carlos Baturin, in a ceremony celebrated on July 11 in Tres Cantos (Madrid), after a 30-year relationship. The couple drew the attention of all media, and the union was documented by more than 80 TV cameras.
“This law has represented a social change in terms of tolerance, visibility and normalisation of sexual and gender diversity,” said representatives from the National LGTB Federation.
However, the law was met with resistance from the most conservative sectors of the country, and had the PP conservative party present an appeal, alleging that the law was unconstitutional. Finally, the Constitutional Court considered that the law was not only a right for same-sex couples, but affirmed that continuing to deny these rights to the LGBT community would have been unconstitutional.

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