What’s new, Buenos Aires?! Gay people getting married, that’s what! Argentina legalized same-sex marriage Thursday, becoming the first country in Latin America to grant gays and lesbians all the legal rights, responsibilities, and protections that marriage brings to heterosexual couples.
After a marathon debate stretching nearly 16 hours, 33 lawmakers voted in favor, 27 were against it, and 3 abstained in Argentina’s Senate in a vote that ended after 4 a.m. Since the lower house already approved it, and President Cristina Fernandez is a strong supporter, it now becomes law as soon as it is published in the official bulletin.
The approval came despite a concerted campaign by the Roman Catholic Church and evangelical groups, which drew 60,000 people to march on Congress and urged parents in churches and schools to work against passage. Nine gay couples had already married in Argentina after persuading judges that the constitutional mandate of equality supports their marriage rights, but some of these marriages were later declared invalid.
Sen. Norma Morandini, a member of the president’s party, compared the discrimination closeted gays face to the oppression imposed by Argentina’s dictators decades ago.
“What defines us is our humanity, and what runs against humanity is intolerance,” she said.
Same-sex civil unions have been legalized in Uruguay, Buenos Aires, and some states in Mexico and Brazil. Mexico City has legalized gay marriage. Colombia’s Constitutional Court granted same-sex couples inheritance rights and allowed them to add their partners to health insurance plans. But Argentina now becomes the first country in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide, granting many more rights than civil unions, including adopting children and inheriting wealth.
Gay rights advocates said Argentina’s historic step adds momentum to similar efforts around the world.
“Today’s historic vote shows how far Catholic Argentina has come, from dictatorship to true democratic values, and how far the freedom to marry movement has come, as twelve countries on four continents now embrace marriage equality,” said Evan Wolfson, who runs the U.S. Freedom to Marry lobby.
He urged U.S. lawmakers to stand up “for the Constitution and all families here in the United States. America should lead, not lag, when it comes to treating everyone equally under the law.”
Sure they have exploding volcanoes and their economy has seen far better days, but for gays and lesbians Iceland is a frozen freewheeling paradise. Iceland is the only country in the world to have an openly gay head of government, Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, and last week the Althingi parliament voted 49 to zero to change the wording of marriage legislation to include matrimony between “man and man, woman and woman,” in addition to unions between men and women.
