18 May 2010
Portugal whiffs of gay wedding cake......
Euro Witch is betwitched by her inability to write comments under previous blog entries http://www.gcn.ie/Piss_Popes_and_Puffs, so she has resorted to writing a new one.
Much to my Portuguese friends' surprise and delight, today their (conservative) President Aníbal Carvaco Silva decided not to veto legislation to allow same sex marriages in Portugal. Although leaving the decision right up to the wire, Mr Silva in his four minute televised announcement chided the Portuguese Parliament for not being able to reach a compromise similar to "civilised countries" like the UK, Denmark, France and Germany where legislation permits same-sex unions (rather than full-on marriages). His decision was to avoid a lengthy legislatvie merry-go-round at a time when Portugal has serious economic issues to address. This fits nicely with Socialist Prime Minister José Socrates' view that this legislation would put right an injustice that caused unnecessary pain.
Portugal joins five other European countries where homosexuals are legally permitted to marry: Spain, Belgium, Holland, Norway and Sweden.
As my friends Tiago, Dina and Rui party in Oslo, I decided to re-read the lyrics of this year's Portuguese entry for Europe's favourite TV show as the EBU now likes to refer to Eurovision which is called There are days like this and found them to be pretty poignant.
Há dias assim
Não há que esconder
Recear palabras
Amar ou sofrer
Ocultar sentidos
Fingir que não há
Há dias perdidos
Entre cá e lá
There are days like this
There's no need to hide
Fear words
To love or to suffer
To hide senses
To pretend they don't exist
There are lost days
Here are there.