Gays celebrating new law. Photo credit: Wikipedia commons

Portugal’s Parliament today passed a bill allowing gay marriage. The bill was approved with strong support from the governing Socialist Party and other left-of-centre parties, the BBC reported. Prime Minister Jose Socrates said the measure is part of his effort to modernize Portugal, two years after his government lifted Portugal’s ban on abortion.

The proposed law now goes to the conservative President Anibal Cavaco Silva, who can ratify it or veto it, The Guardian reported, however, a veto can be overturned by Parliament. The BBC reports that Conservative President Anibal Cavaco Silva is unlikely to veto the Socialist government’s bill. His ratification would allow the first gay marriage ceremonies to take place in April – a month before Pope Benedict XVI is due on an official visit to Portugal.

The law has been fiercely opposed by conservatives in the strongly Catholic country. Conservative parties had sought a national referendum on the issue following a petition that collected more than 90,000 signatures, but their proposal was rejected, the BBC reported.

Paulo Corte-Real, head of a lobby group called Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual Intervention, said Portugal had become a pioneering country in gay rights. “This is a historic moment. We just hope (the bill) gets ratified quickly,” he told The New York Times.

Should the bill be passed into law, Portugal would be the sixth country in Europe to allow gay marriage, following Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Norway. Six US states also allows it.