Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the
former prime minister of Spain, called prohibiting gay couples from
marriage “absurd.”
On Thursday, Zapatero spoke with
students from the Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores de la
UNAM (National School of Superior Studies) in Leon, the largest
city in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico.
He congratulated the lesbian couple
from Leon who recently won a court ruling forcing Guanajuato
officials to unite them in marriage.
“There is nothing more enriching to
liberty than respect for every person's sexual orientation,”
Zapatero said, according to El
Universal.
Zapatero was in power when Spain
legalized marriage for gay couples in 2006.
“The family is great in Spain and
there are families of gay couples who have adopted children and give
them a better chance at life and society has embraced them all,” he
said.
“Homosexuals are not strangers, they
are our friends, our family, our neighbors. They are just like us,”
he added.