Nuestro dios! Spanish football player and former David Beckham shower mate José María Gutiérrez, affectionately referred to as “Guti," was snapped smooching a male mate recently.

The tabloids went nuts, of course, but no one expected such a fall out: Guti's wife ain't feeling the love and has decided to "take a break" from their 8-year marriage, according to reports.

Jose Maria Gutierrez Hernandez, 31, is married to TV presenter Arancha de Benito and they have two children.

She has made a statement to the press stating she has decided to "take a break" from their eight year marriage.
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Guti has played for Real Madrid his entire career, starting with their youth academy in 1986, and is one of three team captains.

Loose translations of Spanish media say Guti and his unidentified pal had a quiet dinner prior to being spotted by a tabloid photographer. The paper also seems to intimate that the soccer player has a history of homo-related behavior.

We had no idea activism could be so glamorous!

Rather than endorsing Argentina's lackluster civil union laws, activist duo Cesar Cigliutti and Marcelo Suntheim hopped a plane to gay marrying Spain.

"We came to Spain because there is a marriage law here that allows the union of homosexuals and in Argentina there isn't," Cigliutti, president of the Argentine Homosexual Community, told The Associated Press from Madrid.

The newlyweds celebrated with friends Monday before a honeymoon in Egypt.

Okay, so from a really gay friendly to one that's not so keen on the queens… Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose?

Spain's Socialist Party successfully seduced moderate voters during 2004's election. The party has repeatedly clashed with Spain's establishment since taking power, particularly with regard to gay marriage. With the national parliament dissolved and elections set for March 9, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and his comrades are steering toward the center:

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has developed an image as a firebrand ready to shake up Spain's conservative Catholic establishment. His Socialist party passed Europe's most progressive same-sex marriage legislation, introduced fast-track divorce and chipped away at religious education in public schools.

But ahead of a fiercely-contested national election scheduled for March 9, Zapatero is trying to polish his credentials as a moderate. His nemesis, conservative Popular Party (PP) leader Mariano Rajoy, is doing the same.

Despite his conservative leaning, Rajoy promised not to overturn Spain's same-sex marriage laws, which may alienate his voter base. We're happy to hear, however, that gay rights aren't being used as a wedge issue, as they are here in the United States.

The Catholic Church better stay out of politics, says Spain's ruling Socialist government. Officials issued a stern ultimatum after last week's homophobic-laden rally.

The party issued a communique in response to accusations by several church leaders that policies such as homosexual marriage were eroding human rights and democracy.

Spain's Catholic Church either had to contest the March 9 elections or to stay out of politics, Socialist Party organizational secretary Jose Blanco wrote in his blog.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government spoke out after several bishops accused it of undermining human rights or democracy at a rally of 160,000 people in Madrid on Sunday.

The church has long been at odds with a government that legalized homosexual marriage, speedier divorce and stem-cell research.
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Blanco on Tuesday described such accusations as 'extremely serious,' offensive to Catholic Socialists, and urged the church to rectify the statements.

The government also wonders if the Church is secretly campaigning for the right wing People's Party.

Pope Benedict XVI used his New Year's message to spread some old, exclusionary dogma:

Tens of thousands gathered in Madrid and Vatican City for Catholic rallies promoting traditional families on Sunday.

Pope Benedict XVI addressed the crowd in St Peter's Square in his last Angelus prayer of 2007 which was broadcast on a giant TV screen for throngs who had come to Madrid's Plaza de Colon to hear him.
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In Spanish the Pope said that the family is "based on the unbreakable union of man and woman and represents the privileged environment where human life is welcomed and protected from the beginning to its natural end."

The remarks were greeted with a massive cheer in Madrid.

"It is worthwhile to work for the family and marriage because it is worthwhile to work for the human being, the most precious being created by God," he said.

Except for us gay folk. We're apparently worthless.

Three Spanish homophobes took Boxing Day a little too seriously:

Witnesses say the brutal beating of a teenager outside a gay bar in Pamplona, Spain, was a hate crime. David Azkona, 19, was attacked by three men after leaving the bar the day after Christmas. GARA reports that Azkona was approached by the group on the street, who asked him, "Where are you going, maricón de mierda," roughly translated "faggot shit," along with sexually graphic slurs.

After Azkona was knocked to the ground, two of the men kicked and punched him all over his body, while the third watched and laughed. The victim was treated at Navarre Hospital for bruises to his legs and buttocks, a black eye and damage to his spleen. He was later released wearing a neck collar and using crutches…

The assailants remains at large.

The most confusing part of this story, we think, is the fact that the thugs asked the teen what he was doing coming out of a gay bar: obviously they're not the smartest bullies…

• Bid2Beat AIDS' eBay auction closes up shop tomorrow, so you'd better hurry and bid on this signed copy of Amy Sedaris' domestic bible, I Like You: Hospitality Under The Influence. Current price: $102.50. We're hoping it goes up to $200.

• Never forget Akinyele's "Put It In My Mouth". It's so inclusive!

• Log Cabin Republican leader Patrick Sammon on Huckbaee's AIDS comments:

[H]e needs to offer a more credible explanation for his comments than what he has offered so far… Governor Huckabee shouldn’t try to revise history to explain away his comments from 1992. He ought to do the right thing and admit he was wrong.

Too late.

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You kids are probably just itching to get out of work and to Thanksgiving festivities. In an attempt to ease your anxiety, we'd like to take a second celebrate Javier Bardem. The Spanish actor recently popped into a Variety screening of his new Coen Brothers flick, No Country For Old Men. And, as you can see, he looked as scrumptious as ever. We'd sure love to spread our thanks for him, if you catch our drift.

Speaking of lessons, today's Spanish Princess Leonor's first day of kindergarten. Here's the young royal with her folks, Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia.

Poor girl doesn't know what she's got in store for her, but she knows her life will never be the same. And, quite frankly, her confusion's adorable!

Stuart Martin won't be traveling to Spain anytime soon. Or anywhere else, for that matter.

The 29-year old British homo will spend at least fourteen years in jail after being sentenced to life for bludgeoning lover Francis Ottley to death in a fight about drugs. Martin, a heroin addict, traveled to Spain with Ottley to help the 54-year old fulfill a lifelong dream: drive around Europe in a mobile home.

Ottley's dreams became a nightmare, however, when Martin's addiction got the best of him. The men argued and Martin beat him to death. He then enlisted an unidentified man to help him dispose of the body, which has never been found.

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• Matthew Shepard's father, Dennis Shepard, wants you to support Congress' Matthew Shepard Act, which includes gays in hate crime legislation:

All of us—gay and straight alike–need to act. Hate affects each and every one of us. It knows no limits, follows no clear set of rules, and has infiltrated our society’s most basic institutions.

For more information on how to contact your respective Senators, visit Matthew Shepard's website.

• Rosie v. Paula Abdul: the legend begins.

• Uniqlo v. Gap: no contest.

• New York's Human Rights Division allegedly prefers white gay men, getting sued for discrimination.

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Spain's justice system has been all sorts of gay in recent days.

Just last week a judge in the southeastern city of Murcia insisted a lesbian give up her children or her sexuality. In that ruling the judge, a one Fernando Ferrin, compared lesbianism to drug abuse. Not the best comparison, of course, and Ferrin now faces a Ministry of Justice investigation for the discrimination.

A more judicial judge, meanwhile, makes up for Ferrin's irrational rationale. A Seville family judge granted a lesbian regular visitation rights for the artificially inseminated child she helped raise with her ex-lover…

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