Madrid, Spain, Sep 6, 2005 / 22:00 pm
A judge in the Spanish city of Burgos has questioned the constitutionality of a request by two lesbians to contract marriage, arguing that the heterosexuality of the couple is an implicit requirement in Article 32 of the country’s Constitution.
Judge Maria Luis Miranda became the third judge in Spain to challenge the constitutionality of Spain’s gay marriage law that was passed in June. Spain’s Constitution states that “man and woman have the right to contract marriage with full juridical equality.”
Miranda said that with the new law on gay marriage, which states, “Marriage shall have the same requirements and effects when both parties of the same or of different sex,” the meaning of the Constitution may be violated, as “heterosexuality is the substantial and identifying element of the institution of marriage.”
She noted that of the articles of the Constitution that refer to rights and liberties, only Article 32 “specifies sexual diversity—male and female—and thus the aforementioned article only guarantees the fundamental right to contract marriage to persons of the opposite sex,” although it does not prevent lawmakers from granting legal status to other types of unions between persons of the same sex.
Liberal lawmakers have begun calling on the government to punish judges who refuse to apply the law on gay “marriage.”