Chile to Consider Same-sex Marriage

Marriage Equality continues to spread though Latin American on the heels of Argentina's historic legalization of same-sex marriage.

Reuters reports:
The head of Chile's Socialist party, Fulvio Rossi, told reporters on Sunday that he planned to sponsor a bill to legalize gay marriage in the country, as occurred last month in neighboring Argentina.

"This is a project that I will present ... and I am also calling on the Church to be more welcoming, and I say that as part of the Church," the senator said, responding to remarks from Chilean Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz who described the same-sex weddings in Argentina as "an aberration."

A gay couple from Chile was among the first to marry in Argentina, in the wine-making Mendoza region, when the country become the first in Latin America to allow same-sex nuptials.

Sebastian Pinera, Chile's first conservative president in two decades, has vowed to give more rights to same-sex couples, but opposes gay marriage.

There has also been talk in recent weeks that Peru, Paraguay, and Uruguay may also join Argentina on the Marriage Equality band wagon. Mexico City also recognizes same-sex marriage, although the Mexican federal government does not.

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Argentine Gay Couple Marries in Tierra del Fuego

In an historic first, Alex Freyre and Jose Marie di Bello became Latin America's first same-sex married couple on Monday. The couple had hoped to marry in Buenos Aires on December 1st, World AIDS day, under the recently expanded civil unions statute, but the ceremony had been blocked by a court order. Both men are HIV positive.

The couple wed in a civil ceremony in the seaside resort town of Ushuaia in the Tierra del Fuego province because Governor Fabiana Rios, an advocate for same-sex marriage, over-ruled the court order that blocked the couple's previous attempt to marry in Buenos Aires.

Freyre said in a statement to Todos Noticias, "It is a dream come true for us. We are completely moved, and so happy for what this means for all gays and lesbians in Argentina."

Mexico City Legalizes Same-sex Marriage

The big news from south of the border is that Mexico City has become the first city in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage. The city assembly approved the bill with a 39-20 vote on Monday.

With Canada, Mexico City and the District of Columbia now recognizing the inherent right of all people to marry the one they love, without regard to gender, and the pending anti-gay legislation in Uganda and Rwanda, will the president feel the increased pressure to do right by the LGBT community, or will he serve up more empty promises?

365Gay reports:

"Leftist Mayor Marcelo Ebrard of the Democratic Revolution Party is widely expected to sign the measure into law. The bill calls for changing the definition of marriage in the city’s civil code. Marriage is currently defined as the union of a man and a woman. The new definition will be “the free uniting of two people.” The change would allow same-sex couples to adopt children, apply for bank loans together, inherit wealth and be included in the insurance policies of their spouse, rights they were denied under civil unions allowed in the city."

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• Mexico City Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage (nytimes.com)
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• Mexico City Says YES to Marriage: A Central American First (queerty.com)
• Mexico City becomes first Latin America city to legalise gay marriage (telegraph.co.uk)