Equal Rights Revisited

Spain's lower house of parliament adopted a bill today allowing for marriage rights for gays and also allowing for adoption by gay couples. The bill will be implemented in a few months, after the Spanish Senate--which like the English House of Lords is a mostly ceremonial legislative house--adopts the bill. While the Netherlands and Belgium have previously passed laws allowing gay marriage, Spain is the first state to pass a bill allowing for adoption by gay couples. The bill will also allow same-sex couples to inherit from one another and to take advantage of retirement benefits from working spouses.

Unsurprisingly, the Vatican seriously opposes the bill, and in fact is calling for Spanish officials to ignore the law, even at the risk of their jobs. This is Pope Benedict XVI's first big chance to try to exercise his power outside of the Vatican. I don't see how he'll be successful, but it bothers me that his first big focus is not on, say, AIDS in the third world, or worldwide hunger problems, but...gay marriage? Yes, I know there are a couple of passages in the Bible saying that homosexuality is evil, bad, and evil, but there are far more passages about caring for the sick and for the least among us. I don't get it.

Robert