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Love and the State: Gay Marriage in Spain

Spanish Law no. 13/2005, 1 July 2005, concerning, through a change in the Civil Code, the access of lesbians and gay men to the institution of marriage.

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Abstract

On 30 June 2005, the Spanish Parliament approved Law 13/2005, which amends the Civil Code to permit same-sex marriage. This formal equality measure put Spain in the spotlight of the international media. It is the culmination of a series of developments spanning from the last years of the Franco regime (which ended in 1975), through the enactment of anti-discrimination measures in 1995, to the recent fight for kinship recognition. It also follows a recent shift, from 1998 to 2005, towards the enactment of same-sex partnership laws at regional level, the approval of same-sex marriage and finally, the approval of a ‹gender identity law’ (2007). This legislative note assesses the context in which the new law on same-sex marriage has been enacted. I argue that although same-sex marriage has been represented by many activists and politicians in Spain as a gender neutral contract, it has the potential for differential impacts on lesbians and gay men, and further research and debates are needed in this area.

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Correspondence to Raquel Platero.

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Platero, R. Love and the State: Gay Marriage in Spain. Fem Leg Stud 15, 329–340 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10691-007-9064-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10691-007-9064-z

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