Spain’s Queen in Trouble After Anti-Gay Marriage Remarks
Spain’s Queen Sofia is in trouble after refusing to call gay marriage a marriage. This despite official government policy which does consider same-sex unions to be ‘marriages.’
If these people want to live together and dress it up as marriage, they can be within their rights, or not, according to the laws of their country,” she is quoted as saying in a new biography “The Queen Up Close.”
Such a union, however, should not be called a marriage, Sofia said, “because it is not.”
Queen Sofia is a convinced Catholic, which may be the reason for her expressed views.
Groups for all kinds of sexuals, Spain’s Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals (FELGTB), condemned the remarks immediately.
Back in 2005, Spain became the second country in the world to officially allow same-sex marriages. In such marriages, couples receive the same rights married heterosexuals have.
It is “unheard-of for the Royal Palace, which has never spoken out on social issues, to do so now, from the mouth of the queen, with part of the population historically suffering discrimination and with a law that guarantees equality in unions,” FELGTB said.
The queen then felt forced to issue a statement distancing herself from her remarks. Although FELGTB accepted the ‘clarification,’ the damage to Queen Sofia’s image was done. Even the conservative opposition Popular Party, which agrees with her views, said the queen should remain “neutral” on social issues.
As far as I am concerned, the queen has every right to express herself on this subject. In private, that is. As monarch one has great responsibilities, which means that one cannot say everything on one’s mind. Especially not when the balance of power between the monarchy and the elected parliament is always difficult to maintain without too many troubles.
