tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6660974939862189427.post-91697373516225390132008-02-04T16:15:00.000-08:002008-02-04T16:16:52.132-08:00<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Associated Press:<br /><br /> <st1:country-region style="font-weight: bold;" st="on">Spain</st1:country-region><span style="font-weight: bold;"> Takes Big Changes in Stride</span><br />By Daniel Woolls<br /><i style="">Despite condemnations from Catholic officials, <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Spain</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s liberal government<br />and the majority of its citizens support gay equality, including marriage<br />equality and adoption rights.</i><br /><b style="">Sunday 02.03.08</b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/03/AR2008020301419.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/03/AR2008020301419.html</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <table class="MsoNormalTable" style="border: medium none ; margin-left: auto; border-collapse: collapse; text-align: left; margin-right: auto;" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr style="height: 4.5in;"> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 281.8pt; height: 4.5in;" valign="top" width="376"> <p class="MsoNormal"><st1:city st="on">MADRID</st1:City>, <st1:country-region st="on">Spain</st1:country-region>—A generation ago, traditional families were sacred in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Spain</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<br /> Gen. Francisco Franco liked them big and Catholic, and gave hefty cash<br /> prizes to parents with the most copious broods.<br /> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br /> <!--[endif]--></p> <p class="MsoNormal">These days, a civics course in <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Spain</st1:country-region></st1:place>’s public schools teaches that modern<br /> families can be quite different _ single parents with kids, or same-sex<br /> couples raising adopted children.<br /> <br /> This and a host of other social reforms have given traditionally Catholic<br /><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Spain</st1:place></st1:country-region> a striking new look. And while the clergy is fighting the changes,<br /> the general public seems to be taking them in its stride.<br /> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br /> <!--[endif]--></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Spain</st1:place></st1:country-region> is one of the few countries that grant full legal status to same-sex<br /> couples, including adoption rights. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez<br /> Zapatero, whose Socialist government enacted many of the changes, also<br /> engineered a law granting financial aid to families caring for handicapped<br /> or elderly relatives, amnestied 600,000 undocumented aliens, and created<br /> special courts to prosecute spousal violence.<br /> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br /> <!--[endif]--></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Half the members of Zapatero’s Cabinet, and half the Socialist candidates<br /> running for legislative seats in elections March 9, are women.<br /> All this is in stunning contrast to the conservative society forged in<br /> Franco’s dictatorship, and is seen by political scientist Ramon Cotarelo as<br /> a reaction to having spent nearly four decades feeling like the continent’s<br /> repressed, backward cousin.<br /> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br /> <!--[endif]--></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Spaniards like to come across as progressive. They think that this way,<br /> they remedy the inferiority complex they have with respect to the rest of<br /> Europe,” said Cotarelo, who teaches at <st1:placename st="on">Complutense</st1:PlaceName> <st1:placetype st="on">University</st1:PlaceType> in <st1:place st="on"><st1:state st="on">Madrid</st1:State></st1:place>.<br /> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br /> <!--[endif]--></p> <p class="MsoNormal">An Instituto Opina poll published the day after the gay marriage law passed<br /> in 2005 showed 62 percent in favor and 30 percent against.<br /> <br /> Only a few thousand gay couples in this nation of 45 million have married,<br /> but the Catholic church is fighting back.<br /> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br /> <!--[endif]--></p> <p class="MsoNormal">At a church-convened rally Dec. 30 in <st1:place st="on"><st1:state st="on">Madrid</st1:State></st1:place> to plug traditional family<br /> values, bishop after bishop stood up to denounce Zapatero. A crowded<br /> estimated at least at 150,000 roared in approval when Pope Benedict XVI<br /> appeared live on giant TV screens from Rome and said marriage is the<br /> unbreakable union of man and woman.<br /> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br /> <!--[endif]--></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The archbishop of <st1:country-region st="on">Valencia</st1:country-region>, Cardinal Agustin Garcia-Gasco, said gay<br /> marriage and streamlined procedures for divorce were undermining <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Spain</st1:country-region></st1:place>’s<br /> families and social fabric.<br /> <br /> “Along this path we are headed toward the dissolution of democracy,” he<br /> warned the crowd.<br /> <br /> Zapatero hit back by accusing the church of trying to impose its view on a<br /> people he described as perfectly comfortable with gay marriage.<br /> <br /> “Whatever some cardinal may say, the family, understood in a broad sense,<br /> is in very good health,” Zapatero told a campaign rally.<br /> <br /> Under Franco, the church was powerful and close to the government. Franco’s<br /> death in 1975 cost the clergy a source of support, and these days only a<br /> small proportion of the 80 percent of Spaniards who call themselves<br /> Catholic attend church regularly.<br /> <br /> Meanwhile, the democratic society that has gradually involved since Franco<br /> died in 1975 shows striking tolerance of homosexuality. In a media campaign<br /> last year to fight AIDS by encouraging gay men to use condoms, one of the<br /> participants was Fernando Grande-Marlaska, a prominent judge at Spain’s<br /> main terrorism court, who is openly gay.<br /> <br /> One sign that society is at ease with gay rights is that the issue is not<br /> much of an issue in next month’s election. Cotarelo said the changes have<br /> probably not angered many moderate conservatives, a key consideration in a<br /> race where centrist votes are crucial.<br /> <br /> Instead, alongside worries about renewed Basque separatist violence, it’s<br /> the economy, estupido _ inflation above 4 percent, skyrocketing interest<br /> rates on mortgages, and a general sense that one of <st1:place st="on">Europe</st1:place>’s top-tier<br /> economies is cooling.<br /> <br /> These are the issues that are giving Zapatero a tough run for a second<br /> term. The Socialists and the conservative Popular Party which Zapatero<br /> unseated in 2004 are running neck-and-neck in opinion polls.<br /> <br /> The area in which Zapatero decisively outpolls his Popular Party<br /> challenger, Mariano Rajoy, is social reform, and Zapatero capitalizes on<br /> it.<br /> <br /> When he called the vote in mid-January, he looked back on his four years in<br /> power and his promise to deliver socially sensitive governance. “I kept my<br /> word,” he said.</p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>blogazarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06878063895859695898noreply@blogger.com