Rome Rally Heats Up Battle Over Legal Rights for Unmarried, Same-Sex Couples

[demoleft]

Source: AP

"Tens of thousands of people plan to rally Saturday to protest a bill that would give legal rights to unmarried couples, including gays and lesbians, fueling a debate that has split Italy amid calls by Pope Benedict XVI to defend the traditional family."
"The legislation, which awaits parliamentary approval, has underscored long-standing tensions in this largely Roman Catholic country between a desire to hold on to church-sanctioned traditions and a push toward greater secularization."

"The bill at the heart of the controversy was passed by Premier Romano Prodi's center-left Cabinet in February, spurring tensions in a coalition that includes both hard-line leftists and Christian Democrats."

"The proposed legislation stops short of legalizing gay marriage - as was done in Spain and other European countries. Rather, it would entitle unmarried couples who live together to hospital visiting rights, inheritance rights and other legal protections."



Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/ITALY_UNMARRIED_COUPLES?SITE=INKEN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

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What a weird place is the world become...!

While the Pope puts abortion laws under fire and promotes virginity, the figures of civil marriages overcome the religious ones.

While in Italy politicians of the government coalition join the rally to protest against the "DiCo" - that's the name of the bill - and in so doing they protest against themselves as a government, Sarkozy, the right-wing conservative, becomes President of France with the support of women and gays, to whom he said it's necessary to recognize equal rights for civil unions.

While one of the catholic leaders of the coming Democratic Party in Italy would so like to be with the rally but he can't, as unfortunately he's conscious to be part of the government who should defend the bill - I read that rep Rudy Giuliani defends abortion rights as something fundamental in a free society.

Help me, I'm in a whirl...

[HockeyMom]

1. The vast majority of Catholics

simply are ignoring the church's teachings when it comes to sex, marriage, and procreation. They have for decades. Probably more so in Europe than even here in the US.

It seems as if Benedict is now trying to reign them all in with a heavy hand. I seriously it is going to work. This horse left the coral a very, very long time ago.

[IndianaGreen]

2. The redder your politics, the stauncher supporter you are about LGBT and abortion rights

and the higher contempt one holds for the peddlers of religious mumbo jumbo and bigotry. That, in a nutshell, is what separates a Red from everyone else.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Same old BS: "To protect my rights, I have to deny yours"

There's no logic to it at all. It's purely a way of trying to gather power for the churches - discriminate against those who don't go along with the churches' ideas, and then maybe a few will join a church out of exasperation.

[demoleft]

4. for the church is going to be a failure in the long run

The Church already spent in vain years like these during the XVI and XVII Century. Same mistakes: culture, social standards, people evolving and going this way - the Church going the opposite way.

I do not expect the Church to be anything else - it is against divorce, abortion, sex before marriage.

But it's clear - so so clear - that its action is politic and relies on the catholic side of the western governments - in Italy the government coalition is partly linked to catholic Church. The bill the rally is about is something the Church doesn't want.

This is politics, not religion. Like the strategy against the abortion rights these days, which is worldwide.

If only Ratz gave a look at the figures: no more priests, more civil unions than religious marriages, feeble faith...where do they think this road will take them, if not to a similar failure like 300 years ago??

Did you notice the middle-age style of the speeches and imagery used by the Pope and his men??

here we go again with devils, snakes, flames, sulphur...my God, last time I read them it was in elizabethan tragedies!

[Laughing Mirror]

5. Sarkozy does not support gays

Where do you get the idea that gays supported Sarkozy and made him president? It's the votes mainly of retired people over 60 that made Sarkozy president.

[whirlygigspin]

6. "i'm so pro family I sleep with my sister"--va encula Scalia

wow, another 'religious' festival of hate, imagine my shock.

may they all burn in hell.

[demoleft]

7. But he was convincing enough...

to let many of them vote for him.

He defined "shocking" the Church position on gays - homosexuality as a "sin". He asked how could an inclination which you are born with make you a sinner. He said civil unions between gays must be legally recognized in France.
Coming from an european conservative these words sound really astonishing, don't they?

I don't know if he's going to realize it. I only mean he was convincing enough. A strong right-wing gay association declared itself satisfied with the promises and said they would support Sarkozy in the second turn. And again, according to french polls:

52% women voted for him,
46% blue collars for him,
44% people from weak social classes for him,
32% people for former green area for him,
even 14% from from far left area for him...

Maybe the polls are not always correct but Royal's party had better reconsider its strategy for the future: Sarkozy is a successful politician. He's a brilliant actor too - so he seemed to me during the final face-to-face on TV!

[Laughing Mirror]

8. We have had PACS, which are civil unions, in France, for ten years

So Sarkozy not proposing anything new, his stance on gay rights appears to be simply don't rock the boat. He is against marriage equality & adoption by gay couples. So no, I don't see how his words sound really astonishing. Ségolène Royal, on the other hand, promised us full marriage rights, etc, if she were elected.

Please share any statistics or polls you might have that indicate how many of us gay people voted for Sarkozy. Since I know of only one Sarko voter in my own gay Parisian entourage, I'd really like to know what percentage of us voted for him nationally.

[demoleft]

10. Sarko and the gay votes...

I said a gay association supported Sarko, not that I had polls about them. The association is Gaylib and can be found at http://www.gaylib.org/index.php

As to the polls you can have a look at http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/04CF568A-B4D9-43FD-A426-938AA0656947.htm

Gaylib is associated with UMP, polls may be mistaken...as you please.

That said, I agree with you that he's not reliable: he said he wanted to widen the gay rights in France. I don't believe him, but many gays did.

The bare fact is: Sarko was able to convince angels and devils at the same time, which makes him a smart politician.
Not one you can rid of so easily.

Perhaps Bayrou, who doesn't admit on gay marriage, offers more possibilities to gays' community in the long run, if in coalition with the socialists.

Something Mme Royal should take into consideration.

[donco6]

9. That was news to me, too.

I thought he was a big Bush supporter?