SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The royal family in Spain enjoys a guarded popularity because it tries to keep out of politics. But a new biography of the queen reveals a regal hauteur -- and Catholic bias -- on matters from Hillary Clinton to the phrase "gay marriage."
A new book about Spain's Queen Sofia has caused an uproar among gays and lesbians because of the monarch's sniffy opinions regarding pride parades and gay marriage.
Leaks from her new biography, The Queen Up Close, appeared in the newspaper El País on Thursday, and the normally reticent queen surprised many people by opening her mouth about political matters.
"I can understand, accept and respect that there are people of other sexual tendencies, but should they be proud to be gay?" she says in the book by journalist Pilar Urbano, which is officially published on Sunday, her 70th birthday. "Should they ride on a parade float and come out in protests? If all of those who aren't gay came out to protest we would halt traffic."
She also objected to the term "gay marriage," although the Spanish parliament legalized same-sex marriages in 2005.
"If those people want to live together, dress up like bride and groom and marry, they could have a right to do so, or not, depending on the law of their country," she said, "but they should not call this matrimony, because it isn't. There are many possible names: social contract, social union." >>> msm – with wire reports | October 31, 2008
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