Argentina Officiates First Gay Marriage in Latin America
Mon Dec 28, 2009
BUENOS AIRES (AFP) – Two men Tuesday became the first homosexual couple to legally marry in Latin America, after the governor of Ushuaia, Argentina's southernmost province, granted their request, the couple and a witness said.
"We got married today in Ushuaia," an exultant Alex Freyre told the Todos Noticias news channel in Buenos Aires by telephone.
"This is a historic occasion," said national anti-discrimination institute president Claudio Morgano, who witnessed the civil marriage.
Freyre, 39, and Jose Maria Di Bello, 41, were legally married Tuesday after Governor Fabiana Rios overruled a civil registrar who initially refused to wed the couple.
"We knew the governor was a person who sympathized with this cause," said Di Bello. "It's a step forward toward judicial equality for every man and woman" in Argentina.
Freyre and Di Bello first tried to get married earlier this month after a November 18 court ruling that ordered civil officials in Buenos Aires to recognize their union.
A ceremony had been planned for December 2, but on the eve of the wedding a second judge put the ceremony on hold pending the outcome of a Supreme Court appeal.
The couple said they decided to marry in Ushuaia, where they travelled recently to work for the anti-discrimination institute.
No Latin American country currently recognizes gay marriage but Buenos Aires, known for its active if low-key gay movement, became Latin America's first city to approve civil unions in 2002. The city grants gay couples some, but not all rights enjoyed by heterosexual married couples.
The president of a leading national gay rights group, Maria Rachid, recently said she hoped Argentina's legislature would take up a measure in 2010 that would change the civil code -- which currently defines marriage as being between a man and a woman -- to being the union of two consenting adults.
"There is sufficient consensus to pass the law at the beginning of the coming year," she said.
Mon Dec 28, 2009
BUENOS AIRES (AFP) – Two men Tuesday became the first homosexual couple to legally marry in Latin America, after the governor of Ushuaia, Argentina's southernmost province, granted their request, the couple and a witness said."We got married today in Ushuaia," an exultant Alex Freyre told the Todos Noticias news channel in Buenos Aires by telephone.
"This is a historic occasion," said national anti-discrimination institute president Claudio Morgano, who witnessed the civil marriage.
Freyre, 39, and Jose Maria Di Bello, 41, were legally married Tuesday after Governor Fabiana Rios overruled a civil registrar who initially refused to wed the couple.
"We knew the governor was a person who sympathized with this cause," said Di Bello. "It's a step forward toward judicial equality for every man and woman" in Argentina.
Freyre and Di Bello first tried to get married earlier this month after a November 18 court ruling that ordered civil officials in Buenos Aires to recognize their union.
A ceremony had been planned for December 2, but on the eve of the wedding a second judge put the ceremony on hold pending the outcome of a Supreme Court appeal.
The couple said they decided to marry in Ushuaia, where they travelled recently to work for the anti-discrimination institute.
No Latin American country currently recognizes gay marriage but Buenos Aires, known for its active if low-key gay movement, became Latin America's first city to approve civil unions in 2002. The city grants gay couples some, but not all rights enjoyed by heterosexual married couples.
The president of a leading national gay rights group, Maria Rachid, recently said she hoped Argentina's legislature would take up a measure in 2010 that would change the civil code -- which currently defines marriage as being between a man and a woman -- to being the union of two consenting adults.
"There is sufficient consensus to pass the law at the beginning of the coming year," she said.
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