Home>News Center>Life
         
 

Homosexuality 'a disease' claims Spanish professor
By Elizabeth Nash in Madrid (independent)
Updated: 2005-06-23 11:28

Spain's increasingly acrimonious debate on gay rights intensified yesterday, as a law allowing same-sex marriage faced a knife-edge vote in the Senate, following contentious testimony from an academic who claimed that homosexuality was "a disease".

Senators from the conservative opposition Popular Party (PP), backed by three Catalan Nationalists, opposed the marriage bill.

One more dissenting voice - in a vote expected last night - would defeat the bill in the upper house, or at least allow officials to opt out of conducting gay weddings on moral grounds. But that would not prevent the lower house from approving the law next week.

Yesterday's debate was overshadowed by earlier testimony from a specialist summoned by the PP who told senators that "homosexuality was a pathology ... that could be corrected by therapy". The opinions of Aquilino Polaino, a psychology professor, were disowned by PP leaders who feared alienating an estimated one million homosexuals who vote PP.

Professor Polaino told the Senate's Justice Committee that homosexuality was caused by "a hostile, distant, alcoholic or violent father ... or an overprotective, cold and demanding mother". Homosexuals, he said, "did not play games as children ... may have suffered sexual abuse within the family ... are more likely to be promiscuous, take drugs and suffer from schizophrenia".

Appalled, the PP high command turned upon Professor Polaino. The party's senate spokesman, Pio Garcia Escudero, apologised to anyone offended by Professor Polaino's remarks.

Eduardo Zaplana, the PP's parliamentary spokesman, who joined a rally for family values led by bishops in Madrid, condemned his views as "from another age".

The two main psychiatric organisations in Spain said in a statement: "The international scientific community does not recognise any pathological character to homosexual behaviour."

The bishops' spokesman, Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, said society was "fearful of laws affecting something as sensitive as the future of the family ... and would be relieved if the bill never became law". But, he added, it was not for bishops to say whether being gay was an illness or not.

The Vatican, in an early test of Pope Benedict XVI's leadership, condemned the bill. The head of the Pontifical Council on the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, said the bill was profoundly iniquitous.



Demi Moore: conquer aging with baby
Lin Chih-ling injured in horse fall
Jolie adopts Ethiopian AIDS orphan
  Today's Top News     Top Life News
 

Taiwan's KMT Party to elect new leader Saturday

 

   
 

'No trouble brewing,' beer industry insists

 

   
 

Critics see security threat in Unocal bid

 

   
 

DPRK: Nuke-free peninsula our goal

 

   
 

Workplace death toll set to soar in China

 

   
 

No foreign controlling stakes in steel firms

 

   
  A novel without a word telling a love story?
   
  108 Chinese grassroots women in race for Nobel
   
  Mainland celebrities' ID card photos exposed online
   
  An honesty crisis has hit Chinese fledglings
   
  Distorted textbooks applied to Japanese students
   
  Granny grows tired of prostitution at age 63
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  Related Stories  
   
Statue of gay hero under fire
   
Thousands rally for gay rights in Poland
   
Pope condemns gay marriages as fake and anarchic
  Feature  
  1/3 Chinese youth condone premarital sex  
Advertisement
         
主站蜘蛛池模板: 一级美国片免费看| 亚洲欧美清纯校园另类| 激情三级hd中文字幕| 奇米影视国产精品四色| 久久精品国产99国产精2020丨 | 亚洲AV综合色区无码二区爱AV| 精品久久久久久中文字幕| 国产成人精品免费视频大全办公室| gogo全球高清大胆啪啪| 日本三级免费看| 亚洲另类自拍丝袜第五页| 第四色亚洲色图| 国产午夜在线视频| 窝窝女人体国产午夜视频| 天天影视综合网| 丰满爆乳一区二区三区| 最近高清日本免费| 亚洲精品国产啊女成拍色拍| 精品无码国产自产拍在线观看| 国产在线视频一区二区三区| 2021国产麻豆剧果冻传媒入口| 妖精动漫在线观看| 久久99国产精品成人欧美| 最近更新中文字幕影视| 亚洲欧美日韩综合精品网| 精品久久久中文字幕| 国产一卡二卡四卡免费| 国产在线视频你懂的| 国产精品视频永久免费播放 | 国产亚洲精品美女久久久久| 18分钟处破好疼哭视频在线| 天天躁日日躁狠狠躁av麻豆| 中文字幕一精品亚洲无线一区| 日韩毛片免费在线观看| 亚洲国产一区二区三区| 特级xxxxx欧美| 加勒比一本大道香蕉在线视频| 蜜桃成熟时1997在线观看在线观看| 国产特级毛片aaaaaaa高清| 91成年人免费视频| 女人18毛片黄|