First gay marriage goes ahead in Latin America

Two men from Argentina have become the first homosexuals to be legally married in largely Roman Catholic Latin America. A local governor authorised the wedding after a civil registrar had refused to officiate earlier this month.

AFP - Two men from Argentina have become the first homosexuals to legally marry in heavily Roman Catholic Latin America, after the governor of southernmost Tierra del Fuego province let them wed.
  
"We got married today in Ushuaia," the windswept provincial capital, an exultant Alex Freyre told the Todos Noticias news channel in Buenos Aires by telephone Tuesday.
  
"It is a dream come true for us. We are completely moved, and so happy for what this means for all gays and lesbians in Argentina," Freyre added.
  
Witness Claudio Morgano, president of the national anti-discrimination institute, called the civil marriage a "historic occasion."
  
The wedding came a week after Mexico City lawmakers voted to allow gay marriages, in another first for Latin America. The change is not yet in effect there.
  
Though the Argentine civil code does not recognize same-sex marriages, a court had approved the wedding of Alex Freyre, 39, and Jose Maria Di Bello, 41, before it was challenged pending the outcome of a Supreme Court appeal.
  
Tierra del Fuego Governor Fabiana Rios authorized Tuesday's wedding after a civil registrar had refused to officiate earlier this month.
  
"We knew the governor was a person who sympathized with this cause," said Di Bello.
  
A November 18 court ruling had ordered civil officials in Buenos Aires to recognize the union and the couple first planned a ceremony for December 1.
  
However, on the eve of the wedding, a second judge put the ceremony on hold to await the Supreme Court decision.
  
The couple traveled recently to Ushuaia to work for the anti-discrimination institute.
  
The wedding was "a step forward toward judicial equality for every man and woman" in Argentina, Di Bello said Tuesday.
  
"We believe that more homosexual couples will be able to marry in Ushuaia."
  
No Latin American country recognizes gay marriages but Mexico City's legislature approved them last week -- to be held starting in February -- in a controversial first for the traditionally conservative region.
  
A group of Roman Catholic lawyers said Monday in Mexico City that they would carry out "peaceful resistance" in the courts to gay weddings.
  
The Argentine capital became Latin America's first city to approve civil unions in 2002. Buenos Aires grants gay couples some, but not all rights enjoyed by heterosexual married couples.
  
Small neighboring Uruguay -- sandwiched between Argentina and Brazil -- has recently spearheaded liberal changes in Latin America with the approval of a sex change law, adoptions by gay couples as well as civil unions for gays.
  
Colombia also allows civil unions for gays, while an attempt to specifically ban gay marriages recently failed in El Salvador.
  
As Tuesday's marriage added to pressure for change in Argentina, the president of a leading gay rights group said she hoped lawmakers would next year take up a measure to change the civil code -- which currently defines marriage as being between a man and a woman -- to between "people marrying."
  
"There is sufficient consensus to pass the law at the beginning of the coming year," said Maria Rachid.
  
Activists also will be pushing to have Argentina recognize same-sex marriages that have been carried out in other countries such as Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa, and Norway among others, Rachid added.
  
 

Date created : 2009-12-29