Spanish gay rights activists have handed in 1500 letters to the Catholic Church from people renouncing their faith in anger at its opposition to gay marriage, which the Socialist Government plans to legalise.
The mass apostasy on Thursday was a powerful gesture in a country where 95 per cent of people define themselves as Catholics and where the new government has outlined several measures that irk the church.
"I do not wish to belong to an institution that crushes gays, lesbians and transsexuals daily," said Pedro Zerolo, a member of the Socialist Party executive board and one of the 1500 who asked that their names be struck from church records.
The Socialist Government, which won power in April, quickly announced it would seek to legalise same-sex marriage and says a draft law will be presented in September - a radical move in a country where homosexuality was illegal until 1975.
The Government is also working to reverse a decision by its centre-right predecessor that reintroduced compulsory religion classes in state schools.
While its plans have stirred heated debate in parliament and prompted protests from bishops, there has not been much grassroots resistance.
Gay activists said the church should not interfere in politics.
"That's ... out of the Middle Ages and there is no place for it," said Arnaldo Gancedo Senra, head of the gay rights group that staged the protest. "The Government is doing something big for us ... and if it needs our support we gays, lesbians and transsexuals will be there for it."