FIRST SAME-SEX CIVIL UNION IN LATIN AMERICA

[trilingual]

It happened today, in Buenos Aires, between two leaders of the local gay rights movement. There was coverage in the leading dailies in Argentina and Brazil, among other places. The ceremony was thronged with relatives of the happy couple, well-wishers and, of course, the press!

 

This was the first legal civil union ceremony ever held in Latin America. It's based on a civil union law that was passed by the City of Buenos Aires, which is self-governing. As yet, there's no such law on the national scale in Argentina, but with a fairly progressive new president and administration,there could be one in the next few years, especially when everyone sees that the sky hasn't fallen in! Because the new law isn't national, the benefits it confers are limited, but it definitely is a significant step in the right direction, especially when one considers that the Roman Catholic Church is still the established church in Argentina and that its hierarchy is extremely conservative. Evidently they just don't carry the same political weight they used to, at least not in the capital city!

 

News reports have mentioned the possibility of civil union legislation in Chile, perhaps the most conservative of all the Latin American nations. In Brazil, the courts have been carving out an entire area of doctrine about same-sex relationships, essentially giving couples who live together openly the same rights as heterosexual common law spouses. The growing body of law there, plus the inevitable impetus of the change in the law in Canada, bode well for passage of same-sex marriage legislation in Brazil in the foreseeable future. (Basically it'll require changing the definition of marriage in the new Civil Code to be between "persons" and not just a man and a woman.) When the law changes in the world's largest Catholic nation, with a population of 175,000,000 people, that'll create some real momentum elsewhere. So keep your fingers off that remote; this show is just starting to get interesting!

[TotallyOz]

That is fascinating! Thank you for sharing this with us. Do you know of any online articles on the story yet?

[trilingual]

If you read Spanish, go to http://www.clarin.com.ar or http://www.lanacion.com.ar The stories were in Friday's papers (18/07) so you may need to search the "ediciones anteriores" by the time you go to their sites. It was also in the Brazilian press and on MixBrasil. I don't know if there have been any stories on it yet in the English-language press, but you might Google on "civil union Argentina" to see what pops up!

[trilingual]

Here's a direct link to the story (I hope):

 

http://www.clarin.com/diario/hoy/s-03615.htm

 

Also just found this story in the Washington Post:

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14093-2003Jul18.html

[TotallyOz]

Got it! Thank you! It just makes me so happy to see strides being made around the world for our brothers and sisters. I have many young friends that come out in high school or early college. It was much later in life when I first officially announced I was gay. I think that stories like this would have helped me feel more comfortable at a much earlier age. Thanks for sharing the link!

[+ Axiom2001]

"It just makes me so happy seeing strides being made around the world." (...hope the quote is correct.) But it's abhorrent to me to see how our Puritanical national and state governments have handled or not handled this!!

[trilingual]

Well, it IS depressing, but on the other hand any of us who live in the U.S. knows that this country is rarely on the cutting edge of social change. On the other hand, we also don't want to be left completely in the lurch, and eventually we seem to catch up to the advances in other countries after Americans have seen that a change works, it hasn't caused problems (in fact, it has made things better), it didn't cost a fortune, the sky didn't fall in, etc.

 

Partly, I think the U.S. is always behind the curve because it's so big. There's incredible social inertia to overcome before consensus can be reached and changes can take place. It's much easier to accomplish such changes in smaller countries that are, on the whole, more homogenous societies. Here, there are so many people with so many different interests, all pulling in different directions, that it takes a long time to get their attention and then get them into some kind of agreement that a particular change would be a good idea. Nevertheless, we've made quite a lot of progress in eliminating racial and gender discrimination, we're slowly inching towards better health-care coverage, sodomy laws just went into the dustbin of U.S. history. . . With luck, we'll all live to see the prohibitions against marriage end, too.

[Guest Gringo]

Hope springs eternal. Or, for those with limited patience or time, a move may be the best thing to do. :+