Portuguese parliament passes gay marriage law
 

New age in Portugal History - Portuguese parliament passes gay marriage law

Gay rights advocates in Portugal are toasting the future, after parliament voted to legalise same sex marriage. But it was a bittersweet victory, as Portuguese MPs rejected proposals to allow adoption by gay couples. read more... from euronews.

From France24

Well, I guess one victory is better then none.

Gay rights is to the 2000's (and who knows how much longer) what civil rights was to the 60's.

Why can't people stop forcing their own personal morals on other people and just let people be with someone they love?

Good for Portugal. Maybe we can get our heads out of our asses here and do something similar

You're behind the times. Gay marriage has already been legal in the state of Massachusetts, and is in some other states as well.

True, but it's still not anywhere NEAR as legal as First-Cousin Marriage is in the United States. Not to mention that the Federal Government doesn't recognize it.

Way to go Portugal!

It's been legal here in Spain for a while now, and so is adoption. You know, there's still many people against it, but it's becoming more accepted in our society as time goes by.

I think that's a really good thing for Portugal, I'm sure it's just a matter of time that they'll legalize adoption too.

I am so proud of Portugal for allowing same-sex marriage. Now if only they could allow gay people and same-sex couples to adopt, that would be awesome.

I am crossing my fingers that more US states allow both someday.

Just because a couple of states allow it doesn't mean the U.S. is ok on this. In the 60's lots of northern states didn't have the same laws that the southern states did....did that make the U.S. ok because some of the northern states didn't have segregation laws when the south did?

its a shameful thing that people feel that there have to be laws to say who its ok to be with and not be with anyway. Why can't people just be allowed to be with the people they love?

Also, In many southern states it is still illegal to be in a mixed race relationship...even though it's not inforced, that's just as wrong as making gay marriage illegal.

NO ONE should tell anyone else who it is "legal" to be in love with.

I´m with you, I love my wife (I´m not gay) and I can´t even imagine how my life would be if it would be illegal...

By the way:

Gays can adopt in Portugal, they just can´t do it married... I explain...

In Portugal is illegal to question someone about his or her sexual, political or religious orientation to use it in a selection process.

Single persons are allowed to adopt.

So if you are Single just don´t reveal that you are gay, communist or Mormon and no one can use it against you during the selection process to adopt a child.

But our adoption law regulates the adoption by couples and singles, but was made when a couple was meant by "heterosexual couple" as the new marriage law is meant to accept, as a couple, also homosexual couples, the law of adoption is automatically to be applied to all types of couples, because the word couple does not define sexual orientation ... any couple could adopt, regardless of sexual orientation.
But this is not the case because as it was not rewritten to suit the new marriage law, the examiners consider that it does not fits the right to adoption by homosexual couples even with the new marriage law ...
So there is a legal vacuum that prevents these couples to adopt ... but the funny thing is that the Portuguese constitution states that is illegal to question someone about his or her sexual, political or religious orientation to use it in the selection process.

So this will continue to be a huge fight for the gay community, because the laws say different things, and it opens the possibility to discrimination in adoption process. Now enter the lawyers....

P.S. First-Cousin Marriage is completely legal in Portugal and never was illegal... is normal... only brothers can´t marry... well if they reveal that they are brothers... if their last name is not the same they can "manage" to do it...

I don't think that there is anyplace in the world where it is illegal to be in love with anybody. :D

Also, I doubt there is anyplace in the USA where two or more people can't live with each other either, whether they love each other or not.

Marriage is however a legal contract, and isn't necessarily based on love. (Think of marrying for money, royal marriages, etc.) Thus, the government DOES have the right to say who can or cannot marry. Gay marriage is not an inherent "right", any more than it is to have several wives. (Not legal in Utah, BTW. I checked.)

So, if you say that gay marriage is a right, by definition it is also a right to legally marry several wives. I do not believe that is a right anywhere in Europe.

Re first cousin marriage: None other than the artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec was a child of two first cousins. Yes, he was a dwarf, but I always thought it was caused by polio rather than genetic defects.

Am I the only one here disgusted by the concept of first-cousin marriages?

Add another country to the list of nations that are more forward thinking than America. Good for them.

Totally not, that stuff is gross.

The only one saying this is you. I'm not going to have this retarded discussion with you again, but for the next person stupid enough to do so it would be nice if you could come up with some arguments that don't completely hinge on ridiculous blanket statements and your assumption that you can freely speak for others.

Please don´t start personal vendettas...

:rolling::no:

Put it this way. If someone from a nation where multiple wives are permitted and who has several wives comes to a nation where multiple wives are not permitted, what then?

Then they're not legal.
Just like if I married my girlfriend in her native country and tried to come back to the United States. Our marriage wouldn't be legal.
And don't even get me started on what it would take to get her citizenship...

Legal =/= right or fair.
(or rather, does not ALWAY equal right or fair)

Though...I'm totally using your strawman argument the next time we're together.

"No babe, us getting married is TOTALLY the same thing as me taking on a second lover...."

Um, if your location is correct, your marriage in your home state would be legal.

Also, on a different forum, I've read a thread about people who talk about being group lovers, e. g. two boyfriends having a third one. If they all wanted a group marriage, would you object to that?