Spain’s Powerful Decision to Approve Gay Marriage Still Being Felt More Than a Decade Later

As countries such as Germany and Australia still lag behind in legalising gay marriage, progressive countries like Spain are well into their second decade of legal gay marriages.

It was back in June 2005 that Spain’s newly elected Socialist government led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero passed gay marriage into law, with the first ever same-sex wedding taking place less than two weeks later.

Spain was the only the third country at the time to legalise same-sex marriage, with The Netherlands and Belgium leading the way and Spain beating Canada to the punch by just 17 days.

Today, almost 12 years later, delegates from 21 world nations including Spain visited the place where the historic laws were enacted.

The National Spanish Congress is where the law was passed on June 30, 2005, and the Mr. Gay World delegates stood on the floor of the main plenary chamber today hearing about that historic day and how important it was to both Spain and the rest of the world for LGBTI rights.

Despite Spain’s reputation as a traditionalist and religious country, 66 percent of Spaniards supported the law at the time, even amid protests from the Roman Catholic Church that it would “devalue marriage”.

During the debate before the historic vote, Mr. Zapatero acknowledged Spain was joining the growing numbers of countries legalising gay marriages.

“We are not the first, but I am sure we will not be the last,” he told the chamber.

“After us will come many countries, driven, ladies and gentlemen, by two unstoppable forces: freedom and equality.”

If there is nothing else that the Mr. Gay World delegates can take away from this week in Madrid, is how powerful a force this decision in Spain was 12 years ago and that they need to lead the way in pushing for these rights to continue to grow across the world.

Last Updated on May 7, 2017