Saturday, October 11, 2008

No!

I suppose it should be no surprise, but
Portugal's Parliament voted by a large majority against proposals to allow same-sex marriages in the mostly Roman Catholic country.

The governing Socialist Party and the main opposition Social Democratic Party both opposed legalising gay and lesbian marriages.

The proposals came from two minor opposition parties, the Left Bloc and the Green Party, which argued that the Portuguese Constitution grants equal rights for all and protection against discrimination.

But the Green Party motion collected only 17 votes in the 230-seat legislature on Friday, and the left Bloc won the support of just 11 lawmakers.
The government managed to legalize abortion last year in spite of the opposition of the Catholic Church, which still has great influence in Portugal, but same-sex marriage, well, that's different (as always). That requires "considered discussion" and "broad support." It's not like, y'know, we're going to lead or anything.

On the upside, the lopsided vote does not reflect actual public opinion:
An opinion poll published on Friday in the daily newspaper Jornal de Noticias said 53% of those who expressed an opinion opposed gay marriage and 42% supported it.
So public support is considerably stronger than the parliamentary vote would indicate. Meanwhile, a legal challenge to the law defining marriage as between two people of different sexes is before Portugal's Supreme Court, but no date has been set for a decision.

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