Spanish Parliament Passes Gay Marriage Bill; Like Usual, Our Country Sucks

Last Friday, Spain’s parliament accepted the right for same-sex couples to marry and adopt children, reports BBC News. Now the Senate just has to pass the bill, which is expected within weeks.
In addition to a previous post on the new socialist (and feminist) Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s efforts to create a domestic violence bill, he has since made strong efforts to remove the strong influence from the Church in Spain, and create a secular state.
Under the bill, Spanish Civil Law will include the statement: “Matrimony shall have the same requisites and effects regardless of whether the persons involved are of the same or different sex.” Woohoo!
While the newly elected Pope Benedict XVI has not been a happy fellow about this, Zapatero said:
“If the new Pope wants to say something about it, I’m prepared to respect whatever he says, he can count on my respect for him…One of the guarantees of democracy is the freedom of religion, freedom of opinion and freedom to carry out a political project with the citizens’ vote.”
In the meantime, the Texas House of Representatives has just passed a bill that will ban same-sex couples from becoming foster parents. There is an estimated 2,000 to 2,500 children presently in the care of gay and lesbian foster parents in Texas. So what are they going to do, send in teams to rip these kids from their homes? I wouldn’t be surprised if they quarantined them as well. Sigh.