The Constitutional Court says yes to marriage equality
For seven years, Spain's marriage equality hung in the balance. Then the Constitutional Court delivered a clear verdict.
On 6 November 2012, a ruling came down in Madrid that thousands of couples had been waiting for for seven years. The Spanish Constitutional Court dismissed the challenge to the opening of marriage. Eight judges voted in favour, three against.
The story begins in 2005. The Socialist government under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero opened marriage to same-sex couples, including the right to adopt. After the Netherlands and Belgium, Spain was only the third country in the world to take this step. The Catholic Church protested fiercely. The conservative People's Party went to the Constitutional Court. Its main argument rested on Article thirty-two of the constitution, which guarantees "man and woman" the right to marry. This, the challenge argued, referred exclusively to marriage between one man and one woman.
The proceedings dragged on, and in the meantime the political situation turned around. When the ruling came, the People's Party itself was in government. As opposition leader, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy had called the law a "disgrace". Now his government had to accept a clear defeat in court. The twist: even a judge nominated by the conservatives sided with the majority.
Rajoy had promised beforehand to accept the decision, however it turned out. He kept his word. That same day, his justice minister declared that the law would remain in force, even though the party would have had the majority to overturn it in parliament.
For some twenty-two thousand couples who had married since 2005, a long period of uncertainty came to an end. And the signal carried beyond the Pyrenees: just one day later, the French government launched its own bill on marriage equality.