Parliament says yes to marriage equality

On 8 January 2010, the Portuguese parliament in Lisbon voted to open marriage. The government of Prime Minister José Sócrates had introduced the bill, and he opened the debate himself. The law corrected an injustice and ended pointless suffering, he said. His generation could not be proud of how it had treated homosexuals. Same-sex love had been a crime in Portugal until as late as 1982.

The vote largely followed party lines. The left-wing majority said yes, the centre-right opposition no. Its demand for a referendum failed, as did its counter-proposal, which would merely have given couples more rights without marriage. Outside parliament, activists celebrated with a wedding cake.

The joy was not unclouded. At the same time, parliament rejected the right of same-sex couples to adopt. Adoption was not a right of the couple, but one of the child, Sócrates argued. The smaller left-wing parties accused him of making gay men and lesbians second-class citizens. That would only change in 2016.

The setting was remarkable. Portugal is deeply Catholic, and a visit by Pope Benedict XVI, a declared opponent of same-sex marriage, was announced for May. Yet opposition remained surprisingly muted. It was quite different in neighbouring Spain, where hundreds of thousands had taken to the streets before marriage was opened.

After the final vote, President Aníbal Cavaco Silva signed the law, even though he was personally against it. It took effect in June, and Portugal became the sixth country in Europe with marriage equality. The first wedding was between two women, Teresa Pires and Helena Paixão. Four years earlier, the registry office had refused to marry them, of all people. Their case had once set the debate in motion.