Tag Archives: Spain

Led by anti-gay asshat Mariano Rajoy, Spain’s deeply conservative Popular Party scored a landslide victory in yesterday’s national elections. Rajoy has vowed to repeal same-sex marriage rights once he’s in power. The Socialist Party, which has governed Spain since 2004, has admitted defeat. Mr Rajoy, who is expected to tackle the country’s debts amid slow growth and high unemployment, said …

Spain has granted citizenship to Puerto Rico-born Ricky Martin, who may be seeking a legal venue to marry his boyfriend. Spokesman Jose Blanco told a news conference that ministers had agreed to grant him a “letter of naturalization”, issued in special circumstances, because of his “personal and professional links with Spain”. Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that Martin sought citizenship …

The campaign to repeal same-sex marriage is not limited to the United States. Next month’s general elections threaten to undo Spain’s 6-year-old gay marriage law. The Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, which swept into office in 2004, looks to be on the outs. Polling shows the conservative Popular Party (PP) with a 15-point lead over Socialists. …

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New York Times columnist Frank Bruni points to an interesting theory on why same-sex marriage has become legal in some rather unexpected places. It was only a little more than a decade ago that a country first legalized same-sex marriage, and that happened in precisely the kind of forward-thinking, bohemian place you’d expect: the Netherlands. About two years later, Belgium …

While many who work down in the trenches of HIV/AIDS activism have long given up any hope of an effective vaccine in our lifetimes, small glimmers of hope continue to occasionally peek through the clouds. From a small vaccine study in Spain, a result that may reduce HIV to a “minor chronic infection” such as herpes: The trial demonstrated how …

Speaking to an estimated crowd of 1.5 million, yesterday Emperor Palpatine told pilgrims at Spain’s World Youth Day that marriage could only exist between a man and woman. “The Lord calls many people to marriage, in which a man and a woman, in becoming one flesh, find fulfilment in a profound life of communion,” he told the young pilgrims. “For …

Thousands of protesters (including an apparently large LGBT contingent) clashed on the streets of Madrid with Catholic pilgrims celebrating the Pope’s arrival for World Youth Day. Ill Papa will conduct a mass before an estimated two million people tomorrow.

Advocate reports: “Hundreds of LGBT protesters planned to kiss while Pope Benedict XVI was en route through Madrid, but police blocked the protesters before they could meet up. The activists had planned to join up on the major artery Calle Serrano, along which the pope later traveled in his bulletproof white vehicle for a welcoming ceremony in Plaza Cibeles Square.”

Temporary public confessionals have been erected in Madrid in anticipation of a papal visit. Who else can totally see this installation being repurposed come nightfall? (Tipped by JMG reader David)

Angry over being accused of being gay, a Catholic priest in Spain has offered to have his anus measured. Because that totally proves…uh…something. The rumors about Father Andrés García Torres apparently started with his above photo with a “young Cuban seminarian.” Ahem. (Tipped by JMG reader Andy)

Inspired by the space-saving furniture on yachts, a Barcelona man turned his 250 square feet apartment into a “Lego-style” living space.

Even in Spanish, somehow this sounds instantly familiar.

Yesterday Pope Benedict spoke via satellite from the Vatican to bless the hundreds of thousands gathered at a massive annual anti-gay marriage rally in Madrid. The rally was sponsored by the Archdiocese of Madrid with the support of the Popular Party, Spain’s right-wing movement which has vowed to overturn same-sex marriage. Organized by the Archdiocese of Madrid and Cardinal Antonio …

Spain’s Young Socialists of Catalonia party is raising eyebrows with this orgasmic GOTV ad. A spokesman for the conservative Convergence and Union Party, Josep Antoni Duran Lleida, called the ad “crude” and suggested it might somehow discourage voters from turning out. Bibiana Aido, Spain’s equality minister, who is a Socialist, admitted that the ad was “misleading,” although, she added, “if …

Spain’s right-wing People’s Party opposition leader Mariano Rajoy has filed a constitutional challenge to marriage equality and has vowed to repeal the law should he become prime minister in 2012. A drag queen showed up at Rajoy’s book launch to let him know what she thought. (Tipped by JMG reader Ejaaz)

Hundreds of homos staged a protest kiss-in as the Pope-Mobile passed in Barcelona today. (Tipped by JMG reader Jimmy)

From the English portion of the clip description, which is in eight languages: Lip dub for the independence of Catalonia and the rest of the Catalan Countries, recorded October the 24th 2010 in the city of Vic. Achieving a total amount of 5.771 participants, the World Records Academy awarded the World Record for being the lip dub with highest participation …

Spain’s hookers are required to wear reflective safety vests when they work in traffic. No vest = 40 Euro fine.