Spaniards Protest Gay-Marriage Legislation

Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Madrid to protests against government moves to legalise marriage for same sex couples.
The protest is being led by Roman Catholic bishops and members of the conservative opposition Popular Party.
Over 500 buses were laid on to ferry people to Madrid, along with special flights from the Canary Islands and Spanish areas in Morocco.
In April the lower house voted for gay couples to marry and adopt children.
Sweeping changes
The Vatican condemned the bill, which if also passed by the Spanish Senate, will make Spain the first European country to allow homosexuals to marry and to adopt children.
The head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council on the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, denounced the legislation as profoundly iniquitous.
When Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero took office over a year ago, he made it clear he intended to remove what he called the Church's undeniable advantages and make Spain a secular state.
Mr Zapatero has indicated that he also intends to streamline divorce law and even to relax the conditions placed on abortion.
Resistance
Opinion polls suggest that a majority of Spaniards support the gay marriage and adoption bill.
However, the move has met resistance in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation, with several Spanish mayors saying that they will refuse to marry same sex couples if the bill becomes law.
The march has been organised by the Spanish Forum for the Family (FEF), a lay Catholic group, whose slogan for the march is "The family is important. For the right to have a mother and father. For liberty".
Gay and lesbian groups are staging their own counter protest a short distance from the march to voice their support for the bill.
Story from BBC NEWS.