Argentine Senate passes gay marriage bill
(Reuters) - Argentina's Senate passed a gay marriage bill early on Thursday, clearing the way for the country to become the first in South America to allow same-sex couples to marry.
Following more than 14 hours of charged debate, during which demonstrators both for and against the law rallied outside Congress, the upper house voted 33-27 for the proposal, with three abstentions.
"I believe this has advanced equal rights," Senator Eugenio Artaza told reporters after the debate in which many lawmakers in the upper house invoked their Roman Catholic beliefs to explain their stance.
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez supports gay marriage on human rights grounds and is expected to sign the bill into law after her return from a state visit to China. It cleared Argentina's lower house in May.
Hundreds of people gathered in front of Congress during the marathon debate. A day earlier, tens of thousands of opponents, from children to elderly nuns, braved near-freezing temperatures to protest the measure.
Debate on the bill began in early afternoon on Wednesday and spilled into the early hours of Thursday.
Opinion polls show a majority of Argentines support gay marriage, but there is less backing for same-sex couples to adopt children.
The Argentine president's backing for the bill, which also gives homosexual couples the right to adopt children, has pitted Fernandez against the influential Roman Catholic Church a year before a presidential election.
Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires, had raised particular concern about the adoption clause of the bill, saying it was important to ensure that children had as role models "both a father and a mother."
Pundits have said Fernandez's stance was meant to help bolster her party's leftist credentials. Nestor Kirchner, Fernandez's predecessor and husband, is widely expected to run again for the presidency in 2011.
Only a small number of countries permit same-sex marriage, including the Netherlands, Sweden, Portugal and Canada. In the United States, homosexual couples can marry in five states and in the capital, Washington.
Same-sex couples in Mexico City won the same rights as heterosexuals to marry and adopt children in December, under a law passed by city legislators. Uruguay allows same-sex couples to adopt children but not to marry.
Argentina's cosmopolitan capital, Buenos Aires, is known as a "gay friendly" tourist destination.
Cool - that has to be the largest country so far to legalize it.
(Reuters) - Argentina's Senate passed a gay marriage bill early on Thursday, clearing the way for the country to become the first in South America to allow same-sex couples to marry.
Following more than 14 hours of charged debate, during which demonstrators both for and against the law rallied outside Congress, the upper house voted 33-27 for the proposal, with three abstentions.
"I believe this has advanced equal rights," Senator Eugenio Artaza told reporters after the debate in which many lawmakers in the upper house invoked their Roman Catholic beliefs to explain their stance.
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez supports gay marriage on human rights grounds and is expected to sign the bill into law after her return from a state visit to China. It cleared Argentina's lower house in May.
Hundreds of people gathered in front of Congress during the marathon debate. A day earlier, tens of thousands of opponents, from children to elderly nuns, braved near-freezing temperatures to protest the measure.
Debate on the bill began in early afternoon on Wednesday and spilled into the early hours of Thursday.
Opinion polls show a majority of Argentines support gay marriage, but there is less backing for same-sex couples to adopt children.
The Argentine president's backing for the bill, which also gives homosexual couples the right to adopt children, has pitted Fernandez against the influential Roman Catholic Church a year before a presidential election.
Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires, had raised particular concern about the adoption clause of the bill, saying it was important to ensure that children had as role models "both a father and a mother."
Pundits have said Fernandez's stance was meant to help bolster her party's leftist credentials. Nestor Kirchner, Fernandez's predecessor and husband, is widely expected to run again for the presidency in 2011.
Only a small number of countries permit same-sex marriage, including the Netherlands, Sweden, Portugal and Canada. In the United States, homosexual couples can marry in five states and in the capital, Washington.
Same-sex couples in Mexico City won the same rights as heterosexuals to marry and adopt children in December, under a law passed by city legislators. Uruguay allows same-sex couples to adopt children but not to marry.
Argentina's cosmopolitan capital, Buenos Aires, is known as a "gay friendly" tourist destination.
Cool - that has to be the largest country so far to legalize it.
Argentina legalizes gay marriage
15/07/2010 03:44:34 PM
- 1105 Views
I'm glad - was getting depressed hearing about Uganda on NPR yesterday.
15/07/2010 03:56:33 PM
- 736 Views
How unfortunate.
15/07/2010 07:58:29 PM
- 748 Views
Well...
15/07/2010 09:41:32 PM
- 741 Views
Looks like the USA is falling behind on human rights again. Hopefully it will spur further change. *NM*
15/07/2010 10:48:43 PM
- 459 Views
"Again?" We were doing pretty well circa 1776, but since then maybe not so much. *NM*
15/07/2010 11:33:49 PM
- 329 Views
Marriage is not now, nor has it ever been a "right". *NM*
16/07/2010 12:41:21 AM
- 286 Views
you just really want someone to get into this with you, don't you?
16/07/2010 01:14:16 AM
- 734 Views
Well it's true.
16/07/2010 05:15:02 AM
- 696 Views
I realize it would be polite of me to answer that
16/07/2010 02:50:30 PM
- 659 Views
You mean you don't have a right to get married? *NM*
16/07/2010 02:50:46 PM
- 291 Views
No you don't. In fact...
16/07/2010 03:52:29 PM
- 714 Views
WRONG!!!
16/07/2010 11:16:58 PM
- 723 Views
Nothing about homosexuals having the "right" to marry and have a family.
16/07/2010 11:20:03 PM
- 716 Views
Pepsi isn't a right
16/07/2010 03:04:30 PM
- 728 Views
And yet no country can force any church/mosque to marry anyone who is gay.
16/07/2010 03:53:42 PM
- 748 Views
That isn't relevant
16/07/2010 04:17:32 PM
- 817 Views
And yet the burden is on you to prove marriage is a right.
16/07/2010 04:59:03 PM
- 709 Views
you keep claiming that. Shouldn't you be able to prove you are right first?
16/07/2010 05:29:43 PM
- 692 Views
Have you been drinking?
16/07/2010 11:18:43 PM
- 694 Views
it doesn't have to mention them specifically, they have been granted ALL the rights/freedoms listed
16/07/2010 11:36:47 PM
- 673 Views
Are you on drugs or just stupid? 'Marriage is not now, nor has it ever been a "right".'
17/07/2010 12:09:23 AM
- 690 Views
you don't have to get married in a church/mosque/whatever or under any official thereof.
16/07/2010 04:55:34 PM
- 752 Views
It. Is. Still. Not. A. Right. *NM*
16/07/2010 04:59:34 PM
- 312 Views
*Shrug* I view it as one. No amount of denial can change that. *NM*
16/07/2010 05:40:32 PM
- 338 Views
*hi5s Argentina!* *NM*
16/07/2010 11:22:19 AM
- 337 Views