The elegant Spanish Queen Sofia is known for many things - her lacy mantillas at royal weddings, her compassionate embraces, her grandmotherly photo-ops, and above all, her discretion.

Leaks from a new biography, The Queen Up Close, appeared in El Pais yesterday and are already causing controversy, especially among gay rights groups, who seemed to like her better with her lips closed.

"I can understand, accept and respect that there are people of other sexual tendencies, but should they be proud to be gay? Should they ride on a parade float and come out in protests? If all of those of us who aren't gay came out to protest we would halt traffic," she said in the book, written by Spanish journalist Pilar Urbano.

"If those people want to live together, dress up like bride and groom and marry, they could have a right to do so, or not, depending on the law of their country, but they should not call this matrimony, because it isn't," she is quoted as saying.