A year after gay marriage law, first divorce

26 June 2006

MADRID — A year after legalising gay marriages, comes Spain’s first gay divorce, complete with a custody fight over the couple’s dogs, it was reported on Monday.

The Spanish daily El Mundo reported the claimant was asking for the right to stay in the marital home and to take custody of their pets.

The suit added that his ex-partner would be granted visiting rights to see the animals.

Council officials said divorce proceedings were private and would only confirm that the unnamed men were married in a Madrid suburb last October, three months after Spain became the fourth country to legalise same-sex marriages.

The claimant said in a petition that he had dedicated his life to the relationship, giving up a modelling career and abandoning his dog hairdressing business to follow his partner who had found work in France.

Some 1,300 gay weddings have now taken place in Spain.

The same-sex marriage legislation gives gays and lesbian couples the same status as heterosexual ones, including inheritance rights and adoption.

The new law provoked opposition from hundreds of thousands last year in mass protests on the streets of Madrid.

Meanwhile a steep rise in divorces has increased yet further since a new divorce law was introduced last year.

In 2005, 150 000 marriages were dissolved, compared to 83,000 in 1995.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news