Buenos Aires Grants First Marriage License To Gays

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Two men were granted a marriage license in Argentina's capital on Monday, breaking ground in a country and region where laws ban gay marriage.

Jose Maria Di Bello and his partner Alex Freyre won the right to get married when a judge ruled last week that a ban on gay marriage violates Argentina's constitution.

"On December 1st we will become man and man," said Di Bello, welling up in tears as a city clerk gave him the paperwork.

Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri said the city will not appeal – in effect inviting other same-sex couples to pursue their rights in court as well.

"We have to live with and accept this reality: the world is moving in this direction," Macri said Friday, adding that it is important officials "safeguard the right of each person to freely choose with whom they want to form a couple and be happy."

Freyre, 39, executive director of the Buenos Aires AIDS Foundation, and Di Bello, 41, an executive with the Argentine Red Cross, sued after being denied a license in April.

Their request was granted by Judge Gabriela Seijas, who said laws limiting marriage to "a man and a woman" violate constitutional rights of equality.

Argentina's Congress is considering changing dozens of articles in the civil code to enable same-sex marriage. The proposal has support among ruling party lawmakers but President Cristina Fernandez has yet to take a stand. The Roman Catholic Church and other Christian groups are opposed.

Currently no country in Latin America allows gay marriage, though some jurisdictions allow gay partners to form civil unions with many of the same rights.

Seijas' ruling sets no precedent beyond this case, but other gays and lesbians can cite it and hope for positive results in court if their requests for marriage licenses are denied.

"Ideally we want the bill to pass so that couples won't have to resort to this type of action," said Maria Rachid, president of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transsexual Federation of Argentina.

Buenos Aires in 2002 became the first city in Latin America to allow same-sex civil unions, and Mexico City followed in 2007. Uruguay has legalized civil unions nationwide. Spain went further, legalizing same-sex marriage in 2005.

The men – both HIV positive – plan to marry on World AIDS Day at the same civil registry in the capital's Palermo neighborhood. They told The Associated Press that marriage – and not just a civil union – is important to them because they want a shared health insurance policy and inheritance rights, among other things married couples now enjoy.

Comments

[BeninOakland]

And if we are going to talk about speical rights, why do any man and woman who are legally eligible to marry, no matter how ignoble or murderous or dishonest or abusive or previously married they may be, who have $50 for a marriage license and enough alcohol in them to think that getting one is a good idea...

why do such a man and woman have that right, when my friends Andy and Paul, a devoted couple for 40 years, law-abiding, tax paying, contirbuting and productive members of hteir community, do not?

It seems to me that heterosexuals have all sorts of special rights

[JeremiahA]

If you would like to make "ignoble or murderous or dishonest or abusive" as part of the criteria for a marriage license, well, I currently cannot think of anything wrong with that.

[BeninOakland]

Try reading THIS:

http://www.exgaywatch.com/wp/2009/11/xgw-digest-november-7-2009/#comments

[BeninOakland]

As always, Jeremiah, in your religious fervor against the full inclusion of gay people, oyu have it dead wrong.

In our country, and I believe in Argentina, men and women are legally equal. If a woman has the right to marry a man, as a man, I should have the SAME right, not a special right.

And when same sex marriage becomes a reality, as it most likely will do unless the Christofascists take over, there will STILL be no special rights. We will all have the same rights. You'll be able to mary a man or a woman, just like me.

The real question is why you feel your biblically-based beliefs, based upon your interpretation of one of the many versions of the bible, should be binding upon the civil equality of people who do not share them.

Maybe it really isn't about your religion at all.

[JeremiahA]

Who ever said I was religious?

[JeremiahA]

And if I am religious, what would that have to do with my argument? Are you saying whether an argument is right or wrong depends on the person giving the argument?

[JeremiahA]

Step right up! Come one! Come all!

Gather around for a feat of legerdemain...an amazing work of hocus pocus. Watch carefully as the judge in Argentina, with something up his sleeve, will produce out of thin air a special right of marriage for same sex partners.

Watch closely now. With a wave of his gavel and the magic words "Abracadabra" and...TA-DA!!!!!

Yes, once again by defying and ignoring natural, common, and constitutional law, a judge has seemingly created a non-existing right for homosexuals that already existed, the option to marry someone under equally applied limitations.

We hope you have enjoyed this abuse of judicial powers...I mean, we hope you enjoyed the SHOW!

[Veniidiici]

It's not your country I am assuming, so why bother.

[mercury613]

I'm sure you would have said the same thing about interracial marriage before it was legal. Abuse of judicial powers, blah blah blah.

[JeremiahA]

What does interracial marriage have to do with same sex marriage or abuse of judicial powers?

[Politiqo]

The difference is that in Latin America, as in Spain, the Catholic Church is part of our their daily life, but it DOES NOT control the social decisions that are made. There are more pressing issues like the economy and health care that they focus on, not whether two people get married. That is why although 95% of Latin America is Catholic, it has little power of the politics, except in abortion issues, but that's more of a life/death situation.

IN the US, the church RULES people's lives... it's really scary.

[JeremiahA]

Which church rules people's lives in the US? What do you mean by rules? Do you mean that church leaders dictate what their members of their congregation do, or do you mean that church goers do not think for themselves, or do you mean that they believe in objective morals, or something else?

[winningticket]

When it comes to marriage equality: emerging market economies 1, USA zero!

[Niasia]

Maybe one day my gay brothers and sisters will have this right here at home!!!

[greeneyes13]

Congratulations to the happy couple!

Makes me wonder how and why the church is so powerful here in the United States. Because in my mind, that's the only reason people oppose same-sex marriage--the church says it's wrong.

How did we get to this point, when religious officials and religion dictate public policy? We're supposed to have separation of church and state, yet we have the Catholic church threatening to cut off social services if gay marriage is approved in our nation's capital.

It makes no sense to me. And it makes me really sad.

Guess the girlfriend and I could look into getting married in Buenos Aires now. ;)

[MrVinegar]

Yet another country leaves the United States in the dust when it comes to equality.

[dans5843]

This is great news............
Congradulations to the happy couple.

Hopefully soon is the USA

[K.J. Dwyer - Huffpost Blogger]

I've been living in Buenos Aires for the last five years now and was in the middle of writing the following article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kj-dwyer/dc-catholic-charities-let_b_356244.html

when the news came on celebrating the judges ruling in Buenos Aires. The local stations devoted a full half hour of coverage with extensive interviews of the couple in question. Lovely, celebratory, affirming, detailed, thougtful coverage: something you'd never see in the U.S. television press in a million years.

I find it a little ironic how in DC (the autonomous capitol of the U.S.), the supposed cradle of freedom, there is such blatant oppostion from, among others, the Catholic Church, whereas in Buenos Aires (the autonomous capitol of Argentina), a supposed "developing" country, there may be opposition, but even the conservative mayor, who could have blocked this ruling, decided to let it stand.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/11/14/argentina.same.sex.marriage/index.html

As the U.S. continues to dig in its ultra-conservative heels on this issue, the rest of the world is leaving it in the dust. There is a very real possibility that Ecuador and Uruguay will have gay marriage before the United States.

Que verguenza para los estadounidenses.

[NWBrunette]

Common sense and human decency arrives in Argentina. Yeah! Maybe sometime this century the same thing can happen for America, and 10 year-olds can go back to standing for the pledge.

[PhilipB]

"safeguard the right of each person to freely choose with whom they want to form a couple and be happy"
Well that sounds like the truth inherant in the American constitution to me.
It is important to note that those who would wish to discriminate based on broad assumptions as treating good individuals and citizens as a group, as "those people" outside of rights, privileges and benefits in fact create a rift that threatens the entire constitution and themselves.
Most people who accept the status quo of in-equality for their fellow citizens would be appalled and outraged to discover the same un-constitutional discrimination could in fact be applied to themselves. Do not be so sure of freedom when you allow it to be denied to others.
That is something everyone should consider, no matter if you are gay or straight or just simply a citizen of the country you love.

[Spencaa]

Another one down. Coming home to the US soon I hope. Can't stave off progressive change forever, rethugs

[llisa]

At the rate we are going, third-world countries will all allow gay marriage before the US makes it legal (with all benefits) country-wide.

Good for you, judge! It's a start.