Comments on: The dominos fall...

The dominos fall...

Civil_Disobedient — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 04:04:05 -0800

Spain legalizes gay marriage. Warm-climate-loving gay people rejoice! You now have warm beaches to share with your spouse. Yesterday it was Canada; which country will be tomorrow? [link to La Vanguardia article]

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 04:14:24 -0800

will it be tomorrow... dang.

By: Pretty_Generic

Pretty_Generic — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 04:16:19 -0800

No, you were right the first time: countries that allow gay marriage are the future.

By: octothorpe

octothorpe — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 04:27:56 -0800

I find myself thinking, "well if so many other countries legalize gay marriages then maybe the US will rethink its attitudes." But then I think about issues like Universal Healthcare, Capital Punishment and the Metric System and realize that we're just stuck here in the middle-ages and probably won't make progress toward rational behavior anytime soon. This makes me very sad for my country.

By: orthogonality

orthogonality — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 04:29:38 -0800

"Old Europe".

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 04:41:27 -0800

Despite the U.S. administration's best efforts, freedom is on the march.

By: twistedonion

twistedonion — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 04:42:18 -0800

"Old Europe". Gay Europe

By: drgonzo

drgonzo — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 05:01:23 -0800

teh Coalition of the Fabulous!

By: XQUZYPHYR

XQUZYPHYR — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 05:36:50 -0800

Yesterday it was Canada; which country will be tomorrow? It's like the rise of Communism, only instead of millions of people dying, a bunch of right-wing Americans just whine a lot.

By: scheptech

scheptech — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 05:45:19 -0800

But then I think about issues like Universal Healthcare, Capital Punishment and the Metric System and realize that we're just stuck here in the middle-ages and probably won't make progress toward rational behavior anytime soon America has become ungovernable in the sense that nothing significant can change any more because the country has become fully saturated with special interest groups just watching and waiting for anything that negatively affects them. Just about any change from the status quo will cost somebody something and that somebody will have the political and/or monetary power to stop it before it starts. It's a theory anyway.

By: biffa

biffa — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 05:49:05 -0800

"Old Europe". Does Spain count as Old or New Europe, I think it was part of New Europe when the terms started to be thrown around. Basically those supporting War on Iraq being New, those against Old. However, with Spain withdrawn from Iraq are they now Old?

By: carmen

carmen — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 06:11:14 -0800

yay Spain!

By: ToasT

ToasT — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 06:11:15 -0800

Spain was New until they got their asses handled to them at Trafalgar.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 06:36:53 -0800

Imagine the crazy laws we'd have in the US if they could pass with only a House vote.

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 06:39:38 -0800

*claps*

By: amberglow

amberglow — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 06:45:24 -0800

¡felicitaciones! I love that it's happening during the week of Stonewall's anniversary, but of course then i realize that here, where the modern gay rights movement actually started, is falling so very far behind.

By: jonmc

jonmc — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 06:46:05 -0800

Viva Espana!

By: cheerleaders_to_your_funeral

cheerleaders_to_your_funeral — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 06:58:45 -0800

Viva La Revolution [this is good]

By: Jon-o

Jon-o — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 07:42:13 -0800

Who'd have thunk it. Spain, the home of the Inquisition, is now on the cutting edge of civil rights... Good for them. Maybe, if enough countries follow suit, someone will put some pressure on our government to live up to our self proclaimed ideals of equality. Or they'll get dismissed as godless heathens (or some other such nonsense) by our increasingly fundamentalist government.

By: MarvinTheCat

MarvinTheCat — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 07:43:26 -0800

Seventeen comments? Canada got way more love than this. Good show, Spain.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 07:59:07 -0800

Civil_Disobedient posted "Warm-climate-loving gay people rejoice! You now have warm beaches to share with your spouse." Hey, we have beaches. They are even warm for a couple months of the year.

By: lord_wolf

lord_wolf — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 08:01:46 -0800

my god...first canada, now spain! two once noble countries that are soon going to be in absolute ruin: dogs living with cats, earthquakes, hellfire raining from the sky, pi equaling 3.0, and other such evil things that happen when gays are allowed to marry. at least that's what the fundies tell me. (checks weather report, seismographs for spain & canada) okay, nothing yet. but you just wait!

By: dontrememberthis

dontrememberthis — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 08:11:02 -0800

Here's a play-by-play of how it happened in Canada:

By: digaman

digaman — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 08:12:04 -0800

The theocrats running America into the ground are looking more ridiculous and backward every day.

By: jmgorman

jmgorman — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 08:17:56 -0800

Yay!

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 08:18:23 -0800

Oh great. First Canada. Now Spain. We have to legalize gay marriage in the states now. We can't be showed up by other countries. We gotta keep up with the Joneses!

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 08:26:14 -0800

What I've found to be pretty cool is that the Canada's legislation seems to have come and gone without a whole lot of attention being paid to it. It was fait accompli, and most everyone seems to have shrugged their shoulders. There may be an uprise in thuggery, and Alberta is (as usual) banging the ol' "we won't do what Ottawa says," but otherwise it seems to have been pretty quiet in the papers and news. Hell, big news in my area was a road collapsing into the lake. Heard waaaay more about that than anything else... Oh, and look! The sun rose today! Gay marriage isn't the end of the world!

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 08:27:26 -0800

Oh, re: uprise in thuggery: there've been a few gay-beatings in Alberta the past few days, and hate literature being posted 'round Edmonton/Calgary. Fingers crossed this is not an ongoing problem. Cops seem to figure it's likely related to the new legislation.

By: drezdn

drezdn — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 08:57:56 -0800

By: WolfDaddy

WolfDaddy — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 09:05:25 -0800

It's like the rise of Communism, only instead of millions of people dying, a bunch of right-wing Americans just whine a lot. To me, it's like Annie ... except she's a whore and in prison. Yay Spain!

By: CynicalKnight

CynicalKnight — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 09:17:27 -0800

Repeat after me, Eliza: The gay in Spain marry mainly on the plain

By: signal

signal — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 09:49:25 -0800

1- Yay Spain (and Canada, etc.) 2- Though I understand your light-hearted and Canada-contrasting goal, characterizing Spain as nothing more than a "warm-climate" strikes me as slightly patronizing, no? 3- Is it peverse to wish for 111 to still be around for this? 4- Yay Spain (and Canada, etc.)

By: DevilsAdvocate

DevilsAdvocate — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 10:26:24 -0800

Oh, and look! The sun rose today! No, actually, it didn't!! Proof of God's wrath against Canada!

By: greasepig

greasepig — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 10:35:57 -0800

These gay marriage threads are very predictable and therefore boring. There needs to be more contention in them, otherwise there is nothing interesting to read. I'm being serious.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 12:53:43 -0800

And now today's big news, wholly bumping anything gay off the radar, is the big BC ferry crash. Had themselves a little episode of Speed 2, they did. it was very serene, very graceful, and very, very unstoppable...

By: funambulist

funambulist — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 14:07:59 -0800

Nevermind gay marriage, every country needs politicians as hot as Pedro Zerolo. Hmmm. More kisses

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 15:58:55 -0800

Hey, we have beaches. They are even warm for a couple months of the year. When I think of beach, I think of ocean. I know, some lakes have sandy parts that meet with the land, and I suppose you can call them beaches if you like. But, just to be pendantic, that's just one beach. You used the plural. characterizing Spain as nothing more than a "warm-climate" strikes me as slightly patronizing, no? No.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 16:04:07 -0800

And just to elaborate on that last point, I recognize Spain's vast cultural history, and simultaneously recognize that it is not only far too vast to fit into an FPP, it isn't necessarily relevant to the topic of discussion. The inference that Spain is "nothing more than" is your own, and not only a false conclusion, but inciteful to boot. Further, it was meant as a light-hearted joke.

By: willpie

willpie — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 16:33:31 -0800

Isn't it curious that this is essentially the direct result of an Islamic-fundamentalist terror attack? i.e. if the March 11 Madrid bombing was the cause of the Socialist party coming to power in Spain, and the Socialist party being in the majority was the cause of this law getting passed, then didn't radical Islamic terrorists essentially cause gay marriage to become legal in a first-world nation?

By: benzo8

benzo8 — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 17:21:42 -0800

Whilst it's true that the PSOE (the Socialist Party in Spain) wouldn't have won the election last year had the Atocha bombings not happened, they didn't win because the bombing's happened - they won because of the PP's response to the bombings. So yeah, cause and effect, but it's not direct, so you could take it further and say that the bombings would never have happened had the US not created it's Coalition and invaded Iraq, thus the USA brought about gay marriage here in Spain. Or that the invasion wouldn't have happened had 9/11 not happened, and thus we're back to the Islamic fundamentalists. Or that 9/11 woudn't have happened had US foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East, not been a crock-o-shit for the last 50 years, so we're back to the Yanks being responsible, etc., etc. No, I prefer to think that we have the government we have because the people voted for them, and that the reason we now have gay marriages in Spain is because the people want it that way...

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 18:23:54 -0800

Still, you gotta admit it's a laugh to think of it as Osama's fault!

By: ericb

ericb — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 18:31:36 -0800

Spain was New until they got their asses handled to them at Trafalgar. The 200th. Anniversary of Trafalgar was this week (as per the previous MetaFilter discussion.)

By: signal

signal — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 20:55:11 -0800

Civil_Disobedient: "The inference that Spain is"nothing more than" is your own, and not only a false conclusion, but inciteful to boot. Touchy, much?

By: bardic

bardic — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 20:55:40 -0800

More good news. I wish I was in San Sebastien right now, as I do on most days.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 03:54:08 -0800

Touchy, much? Sorry, I was just taking greasepig's advice.

By: sic

sic — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 11:49:59 -0800

I'm glad somebody posted this. By the way, this law allows full rights to homosexuals, not just marriage; that means they can now legally adopt children as well. ZP* is my favorite politician of all-time. *Zapatero :)

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 17:11:35 -0800

Yay, Spain. The adoption bit is especially progressive.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 20:01:42 -0800

Beautiful speech by Zapatero the other day: ... A society that avoids senseless suffering of decent human beings is a better society. "With the approval of this Bill, our country takes another step in the path of liberty and tolerance that was begun by the democratic change of government. Our children will look at us incredulously if we tell them that many years ago, our mothers had less rights than our fathers, or if we tell them that people had to stay married against their will even though they were unable to share their lives. Today we can offer them a beautiful lesson: every right gained, each access to liberty has been the result of the struggle and sacrifice of many people that deserve our recognition and praise. "Today we demonstrate with this Bill that societies can better themselves and can cross barriers and create tolerance by putting a Images_24 stop to the unhappiness and humiliation of some of our citizens ...