Spain one step closer to legal gay marriage

Spain's Socialist government on Friday approved a bill to legalize same-sex marriages, putting this predominantly Roman Catholic country on course to become only the third country to recognize gay marriages nationwide. The bill was approved at a cabinet meeting and is expected to be presented to parliament in February for debate.
"The right to marry is a right for everyone, without distinction. It cannot be understood as a privilege," Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega told a press conference after the cabinet meeting. "The recognition of homosexuals' rights eradicates an unjustified discrimination."
Under the bill gays and lesbians will be allowed to adopt children, and members of same-sex couples will be able to inherit from one another as well as receive retirement benefits from their working spouses in the same way that married heterosexuals do now.