Rally For Equality Law in Argentina

The Argentinian Lower House has already voted in favour of an equality law, which will allow for both the legal recognition of same sex marriage, and also gay adoption. The measure must still pass the Senate, where passage is not guaranteed. Senators are currently touring the country to try and take a sounding of the national mood, arguing that pressure in favour of equality is coming only from the metropolitan elites of Buenos Aires. To counter this activists are now taking to the streets in rural cities as well.

From On Top Magazine:

Thousands Rally For Gay Marriage In Argentina

More than 4,000 people rallied Thursday in Cordoba to urge the Argentine Senate to approve a gay marriage bill, various media outlets reported.

Demonstrators marched on the Plaza de la Intendencia, where they held banners, chanted slogans and listened to speeches in favor of making Argentina the first Latin American country to legalize marriage between two members of the same sex.

The bill was approved in May by Argentina's lower house, the Chamber of Deputies (la Camara de Diputados). The Senate General Law Committee reviewing the bill has taken its gay marriage debate on the road, with stops planned for the cities of Salta, Tucuman, San Juan and Mendoza. The four-city tour runs from June 14-28. The full Senate is scheduled to take up the bill on July 14, a Wednesday, where the measure faces an uncertain future.

Argentine President Christina Fernandez de Kirchner has said she would not block the measure from becoming law, if approved by senators.

Lawmakers in favor of gay marriage also spoke at the rally.

“Today nobody can say the existence of same-sex couples is abnormal,” Cordoba National Deputy Paula Cecilia Merchan told the crowd. “We are fighting, and I think we will ensure that the law is approved, so that these couples are recognized in the same way heterosexual couples are. In that sense, I think this fight has more to do with reality and cultural and social conditions.”

Argentina Marriage Decision Postponed.

Monitoring the progress of marriage equality in Argentina is like watching a tennis match, with the initiative going alternately with supporters and opponents. The parliament was due this week to debate a proposal to approve both marriage and adoption for same sex couples, but this was unexpectedly delayed. There's nothing sinister in this though - they simply ran out of time, with a tax bill squeezing it out.  The debate has now been rescheduled for next week Wednesday..

From On Top magazine:

Argentine Lawmakers Postpone Gay Marriage Debate

Gay rights proponents in Argentina's Chamber of Deputies (la Camara de Diputados) failed to gain sufficient support to open debate on a gay marriage bill Wednesday, but lawmakers say they'll hold a special session next Wednesday.

“It's very painful,” Cesar Cigliuti, president of Comunidad Homosexual Argentina (Homosexual Community Argentina), told EL COMERCIO. “We had every confidence it would move forward. We felt we were going to live a historic moment. But we hope that next Wednesday we will make the initial approval.”

A polarizing tax debate elbowed out discussion of the gay marriage bill, which received the approval of a key committee two weeks ago.

In an interview with Ultimo Minuto, National Deputy Vilma Ibarra confirmed that the majority party had agreed to hear the bill next week.

(Read the full report)

Buenos Aires Gay Marriage: Judicial Ping Pong Continues

Argentina's First Gay Marriage Anulled by Judge.

After Alex Freyre and Jose Maria De Bello secured judicial permission for the first ever same sex marriage licence last year, it was quickly overruled by another local judge. Undettered, the couple went to the south of the country, and secured permission to marry from the government of Tierra del Fuego. The men finally married last December.

Now, a judge from Tierra del Fuego has ruled that the marriage was invalid, and has anulled it.  The couple and their lawyer are determined to continue the fight for clear legal recognition of their union, and will fight the case, if necessary, into international courts.  This will not end soon.  In the meantime, there are also moves afoot to secure equality by legislative means.    


UPDATE: Another judge has likewise anulled the country's first lesbian wedding, that of Norma Castillo and Ramona Arevalo, who have been a couple for three decades, but were married just last week - Argentina's third couple to do so. It is significant that the application for annulment was brought before the court by an explicitly Catholic attorney, just as Argentina's Catholic Church is vigorously opposing an equality bill that would grant marriage and adoption rights to same sex couples.

 
From AFP:

BUENOS AIRES — A judge in Argentina has annulled the first gay marriage in Latin America, state media said Thursday, but the two men in the groundbreaking union said they would appeal the decision.

Judge Marcos Mellien, in the southern city of Ushuaia where the wedding took place last December, ruled the marriage "non-existent," the Telam news agency said quoting a judicial source.

The judge cited an article in Argentina's civil code which forbids marriage between two people of the sa

me sex, according to the agency.

One of the spouses in the contested union, Alex Freyre, described the decision as "a failure of a judge who has no value, because we will appeal.

"We are married and are confident that the Supreme Court will prove us right," he told AFP.

-(Read the full report)

From Latin American Herald Tribune:

BUENOS AIRES – A judge on Friday voided the marriage last week of two women in this capital, the first union of its kind in Argentina, judicial officials said.

Argentine Norma Castillo and Uruguay’s Ramona Arevalo, who are both 67 and have been a couple for the past three decades, married on April 9 after getting the go-ahead from Judge Elena Liberatori.

But Judge Martha Gomez Alsina on Friday decided to annul the marriage, granting a petition by a Catholic attorney to declare the union “non-existent.”

The wedding of Castillo and Arevalo, which was the third same-sex marriage in Argentina and the first involving two women, came amid debate of a bill in the lower house that would allow gays to marry and adopt children.

The bill is staunchly opposed by the Catholic Church.

-(Read the full report)

Equality in Argentina

Argentina Lower House to Debate Equality Bill

While the courts of Argentina continue to bat back and forth the legality of same sex marriage, the question of adoption and marriage equality is about to be taken seriously in the Argentinian parliament. A rather confusing report from Buenoe Aires Herald has a headline that refers to a gay "adoption" bill, while the text refers to a "marriage" bill. I suspect the truth is that this is best thought of as an equality bill, which will guarantee both marriage and adoption rights, and by providing for legal protection of our families, will directly protect the children.  

(UPDATE: It is now clear from brief references in other reports that the bill which has been proposed covers both marriage and adoption. The proposed bill has been cleared by the relevant judicial committee for introduction to the parliamentary lower house.)

From Buenos Aires Herald:

Lawmaker Vilma Ibarra said the Lower House is ready to "debate equality" and prove "there's no sense in stripping certain citizens of their rights because of their sexual orientation." She also stressed that "there's gay couples who are currently already adopting."

"The Gay Marriage bill doesn't intend to debate homosexuality, but equality, since Argentina is a constitutional state in which everyone is equal under the law," she explained.

Ibarra said that "we live in a plural society. Everyone gets to choose how to live and who to share their lives with, their religion and the state must inject plurality into the Argentine society and makes all equal."

The lawmaker explained that the current Adoption Bill allows for heterosexual couples and single parents to adopt, hence there's already many gay men and women who have adopted children.

"Homosexual people adopt children all the time, we're not changing anything, only regulating something that already exists. When gay parents decide to adopt, only one person signs up as foster parent, but both of them raise their child," she stressed.

-(Read the full report)