[1]A lesbian couple wed on Monday in Portugal’s first same-sex ceremony since the predominantly Catholic country introduced a law allowing gay marriage last month. Teresa Pires and Helena Paixao, divorced Portuguese mothers in their 30s who have been together since 2003, married in a 15-minute ceremony at a Lisbon registry office.
“This is a great victory, a dream come true,” Ms Pires said as the couple kissed and hugged. “Now we’re a family, that’s the important thing,” Ms Pires said, adding they will continue to fight for equal rights for homosexuals, including adoption. The ceremony came less than a month after Portugal’s conservative President ratified a gay marriage law passed by Parliament in January.
His approval made Portugal the sixth in Europe to let same-sex couples wed.
The centre-left Socialist government said the law is part of its effort to modernise Portugal, where homosexuality was a crime until 1982. Three years ago the same government lifted Portugal’s ban on abortion, despite church opposition.
Ms Pires and Ms Paixao, the lesbian couple, had campaigned for a change in the law since a registry office turned them away when they first tried to marry in 2006.
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