Macho-minded Albania to break gay marriage taboo

By Benet Koleka

TIRANA (Reuters) - Albania's government has taken its macho-minded society by surprise by announcing plans to allow same-sex marriages, the first such move in the Balkans.

"Despite the debate the law might provoke, discrimination is unacceptable," Prime Minister Sali Berisha said at a meeting on European integration. "This law covers same-sex marriages and other problems of this nature," he added in statements posted on the government website Thursday.

Some gays have come out of the closet after the fall of late Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha, under whose rule homosexual relations were punished with jail terms.

Yet even today, most live secret lives to save themselves and their families the shame in a society strongly rooted in traditional family values. Across the Balkans there is little public tolerance towards homosexuals.

Muslim and Catholic leaders condemned the proposed Albanian law as "buffoonery" and same-sex marriages as "unholy."

Should Berisha make good on his plans, Albania would join European Union members The Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain in giving gay couples the same rights as heterosexual couples and would be the first in the Balkans to do so.

"Because of its position, Albania would attract the biggest number of homosexuals living in our (Balkan) region and beyond," Albania's Shekulli daily said.

As candidates for EU membership, all Balkan nations will eventually have to pass laws protecting sexual minorities from discrimination, but not necessarily approve gay marriages.