Argentina Gay Marriage: Judge Puts South America's 1st Gay Marriage On Hold

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — An Argentine judge put a hold Monday on another court's decision to permit the first gay marriage in Latin America, but supporters of the couple said they would try to go ahead with the ceremony anyway.

The official court Web site said national judge Marta Gomez Alsina ordered the wedding blocked until the issue can be considered by the Supreme Court.

Jose Maria Di Bello and his partner, Alex Freyre, set plans to wed Tuesday based on an earlier ruling by a city judge in Buenos Aires.

"They are shocked and saddened by the news, but still have hopes that the wedding will go forth as planned," said Maria Rachid, president of the Argentine Federation for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transsexuals who coordinated the team of laywers that filed the couple's suit.

Rachid said the couple had not been officially notified of Monday's order and would appear at the marriage registry Tuesday.

"If the civil registry where the wedding was to take place refuses to go through with the ceremony, the gay community will organize a protest," Rachid told The Associated Press.

The court Web site said the civil registry where the wedding was to take place had been notified of the latest ruling.

Two weeks ago, a city judge, acting with the blessing of Buenos Aires' mayor, ruled the couple had been unconstitutionally denied a marriage license and gave them permission to wed.

"We have a huge responsibility on our shoulders," Freyre told the AP in discussing the implications of the couple's effort. "People are suffering because of these limitations."

In 2002, Buenos Aires became the first Spanish-speaking city to allow same-sex civil unions.

Argentina's national legislature opened debate last month on a bill that would change a civil code provision defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. A new marriage law would mean gay couples could enjoy all the rights of a married couple like the right to adopt children, inherit wealth or share a health care plan.

"Our families need to have these rights, especially people like us who live with HIV and need a shared health care plan," Freyre said.

The couple, who met at an HIV awareness rally, wanted to marry on Dec. 1 because it is World AIDS day.

Comments

[JeremiahA]

12:56 PM on 12/03/2009

I have sympathy for Mr. Freyre and Mr. Di Bello and the disappointment they must be feeling. I hope they take this time opportunity to re-examine the current course their lives are taking and seek advice on what would make them truly happy.

[LMPE]

02:49 PM on 12/01/2009

Someone ought to lidlock Sarah Palin a la "A Clockwork Orange" and make her watch the wedding take place.

[Levonsky]

08:35 AM on 12/01/2009

Out of all the campaign promises Obama has broken, this is the one he decides to keep.
Fubar!

[PWM]

11:29 AM on 12/01/2009

He only broke 7.

Obama Record as of 12/1/9
Promises kept (55)
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/rulings/promise-kept/
Promises broken (7)
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/rulings/promise-broken/
Stalled (17)
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/rulings/stalled/
Compromises (14)
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/rulings/compromise/
In the Works (163)
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/rulings/in-the-works/
Overall Count
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/

[KIVPossum]

07:07 AM on 12/01/2009

When the success of a marriage rests on who someone else sleeps with, it is on shaky ground.

[Tommygun264]

04:37 AM on 12/01/2009

So if same-sex marriage threatens to destroy heterosexual marriage, then why does Massachusetts enjoy the LOWEST divorce rate in the nation?

For all this talk about what God has or has not ordained, it does not change the FACT that in the United States marriage is a legal contract licensed by the State. Get married in a church without a license and you are NOT legally married, but get a license and get married some place other than a church and you ARE legally married. Therefore marriage is considered a legal RIGHT granted by the State. No one, NO ONE should have the ability to deny another person their basic legal rights. It is un-American. Don't like it, move to Iran, where homosexuality is punishable by death; or Rowanda, where they are trying to pass a similar law. Enjoy life on the wring side of history. Thirty years from now Americans will look back on those who opposed extending equal rights to all Americans in the same manner we view people who opposed integration.

[DallasDon]

08:01 AM on 12/01/2009

Hello Tommygun264.

I think we had similar influences during childhood. I was raised by United Pentecostals in a VERY small town in the middle of West Texas. (We did have a traffic light!)

I'd describe my childhood like an exotic, elegant peacock being delivered on the doorsteps of a poor farming couple, of which they had no use for. Perhaps they were expecting a gray mule or jersey milk cow and what they got was a graceful, colorful peacock and they had no idea of what to do with me. Add a heavy dose of That Old Time Religion and...... Well, you know the rest of the story.

Currently, we live in a very exciting time. Judicial rulings and legislative victories are gaining in momentum and scope. Justice is within our grasp, not because we seek validation from a bigoted society, but rather because we demand our birthright of equality.

We are full citizens of this nation and our civil and legal rights have been unjustly withheld from us for far too long. The judicial rulings and legislative victories are gaining in momentum and scope. It's just a matter of time before the courts acknowledge our rights afforded us by the Equal Protection clause of the Constitution.

Time will judge those who hate us as being on the wrong side of history.

Can you imagine what that day will be like? Not sure what I'll do, but I expect there'll be a hell of a party here in Oaklawn.

[DallasDon]

09:21 AM on 12/01/2009

Hello Tommygun264.

I think we had similar influences during childhood. I was raised by United Pentecostals in a VERY small town in the middle of West Texas. (We did have a traffic light!)

I'd describe my childhood like an exotic, elegant peacock being delivered on the doorsteps of a poor farming couple, of which they had no use for. Perhaps they were expecting a gray mule or jersey milk cow and what they got was a graceful, colorful peacock and they had no idea of what to do with me. Add a heavy dose of That Old Time Religion and...... Well, you know the rest of the story.

Currently, we live in a very exciting time. Judicial rulings and legislative victories are gaining in momentum and scope. Justice is within our grasp, not because we seek validation from a bigoted society, but rather because we demand our birthright of equality.

We are full citizens of this nation and our civil and legal rights have been unjustly withheld from us for far too long. The judicial rulings and legislative victories are gaining in momentum and scope. It's just a matter of time before the courts acknowledge our rights afforded us by the Equal Protection clause of the Constitution.

Time will judge those who hate us as being on the wrong side of history.

Can you imagine what that day will be like? Not sure what I'll do, but I expect there'll be a hell of a party here in Oaklawn.

[Tommygun264]

08:18 PM on 12/01/2009

Yes, we do share very similar pasts. My mother loves me, but she is a slave to authoritarian rule, once under my father and always under the dogma of the church. When it came to me or the dogma, I lost out. Even before I came out, my father told me that I was God's punishment for his past sins. My coming out only confirmed it and he carried it to the grave. Repression breeds perversion and there are many dark and twisted secrets behind the bleached white facade of fundamentalism where my immediate and extended family reside. Once your basic emotional hard-wiring is set by childhood trauma, there is no fixing it, no closure. Years of therapy have only taught me coping mechanisms to counteract the destructive patterns of guilt, shame, depression and self-doubt that have permanently warped my perceptions of trust and emotional intimacy. All of us, gay & straight bear wounds from our pasts that will never heal. The best we can hope to do is to cope and to do our best to bring an end to the destructive cycles of hate and fear that have warped and wounded all to varying degrees so that those who come after us will never know our pain. Keep sharing, DallasDon.

[LittleMittens]

02:21 AM on 12/01/2009

all men are created equal - unless your LGBT?!

[Tunghoy]

02:06 AM on 12/01/2009

Judge Marta Alsina probably went hiking on the Appalachian Trail.

[ChangeurMind]

12:16 AM on 12/01/2009

Why do people hate love?

[chonus]

01:31 PM on 12/01/2009

Some just love hate.

[tomonthebay]

11:59 PM on 11/30/2009

Your point is right on Fred Hood. Until we get the marriage problem fixed in Massachusetts, Iowa, etc...

[Liberal Angel]

12:06 AM on 12/01/2009

Those states have done what they can at their level, they don't have a marriage problem anymore. We've got to fix the inequality in the other states, and at the federal level.

[wereeverywhere]

10:00 PM on 12/01/2009

"We've got to fix the inequality in the other states, and at the federal level."

The state level is important because of the dignity it gives loving couples and the pressure it puts upon archaic laws and ideology. But the big prize and real change is at the Federal level because that would give real equality.

[Tommygun264]

04:41 AM on 12/01/2009

The Massachusetts Legislature has had the chance to repeal the legislation EVERY year and it has failed to pass EVERY year. Massachusetts enjoys the LOWEST divorce rate in the country. Where is this destruction of heterosexual marriage we were warned would befall Massachusetts? You're on the wrong side of history, pal.

[MarkMcBC]

11:37 PM on 11/30/2009

I am curious why Huffington Post would publish this article with the picture of two obviously attractive women (actually two pairs of attractive women) in passionate embrace yet the story is about a homosexual male couple?

Don't get me wrong, I am Canadian and we fully accept same sex marriage. It has been several years now since same sex marriage has been legalized and our country has not crumbled into an amoral morass (pardon the pun). But why would Huffington Post feel it necessary to sell the article under an image which might be more socially acceptable (a la "L Word" etc.)?

Just wondering, that's all.

[LegalCodex]

02:29 AM on 12/01/2009

"But why would Huffington Post feel it necessary to sell the article under an image which might be more socially acceptable (a la "L Word" etc.)?"

Because plenty of people who consider themselves progressive and support gay marriage still are "grossed out" by the sight of two men in a loving embrace or kissing eachother. Don't want to offend the Disney crowd.

[Averroes101]

07:01 AM on 12/01/2009

It's simple. The sight of two attractive women getting amorous with each other is appealing to post-pubescent heterosexual males, a large if at times primitive-thinking demographic. It's just Marketing101.

[DallasDon]

11:33 PM on 11/30/2009

Regarding marriage equality in America.....

I'm realistic in believing this is a fight we can win. But not with the votes of the populace; Our victory lies with the courts. The rights of the minority are not dependent upon the vote of the majority.

This is the last civil rights revolution the US must overcome. I feel fortunate that I will someday soon witness an end to the discrimination, hate crimes and outright scorn of any American.

My only regrets are that it took so damn long and all those who've come before us and the pain they endured. What their lives, what my life, would have been like if only we'd been given the chance. Time will judge those who hate us to be on the wrong side of history.

Somewhere in America tonight a young man will cry himself to sleep, afraid that his deep dark secret will be found out. He will feel isolated and alone, unable to express the feelings he cannot yet understand. He's afraid his friends and family will abandon him or that he will be harassed, beaten up or murdered if his secret is revealed. He'll cry and ask God what is wrong with him and he'll think about suicide.

I know this because I was once that young man.

I'm reminded of a quotation from John Greenleaf Whittier:

Of all the sad words of pen or tongue,
these are the saddest of them all.......
What might have been.

[madmari]

11:47 PM on 11/30/2009

I'm tired of all the talk about rights - gay marriage is not a right and hopefully it will never be.

[Liberal Angel]

11:50 PM on 11/30/2009

Marriage is a right, period. Marriage equality already exists in several states, so you're just going to have to accept that.

[DallasDon]

11:51 PM on 11/30/2009

Are you mad?

You could not be more wrong madmari. The SCOTUS ruled some years ago that marriage IS a Constitutional right.

What they did not do, is define what a marriage is.

[Liberal Angel]

11:51 PM on 11/30/2009

Here here!

[DallasDon]

11:54 PM on 11/30/2009

Good to see you here Liberal Angel.

I remember reading some of your posts recently but failed to mark you as a favorite. So please count me as fan #175.

[hottingers]

11:17 PM on 11/30/2009

Also,the Maid of Honor di ed after having cosmetic surgery on her butt.(see other front page story)

[DallasDon]

10:20 PM on 11/30/2009

For those of you interested in this subject...­..

Texas has what appears to be a Constitutional crisis on it's hands. In '05 our AG and the voters approved what they believed was an amendment to our Constitution that would effectively ban same sex marriage.

In their haste and eagerness, there appear to be flaws in the wording of the amendment; It defines marriage as being between 1 man and 1 woman. Then goes on to say the State will not recognize anything that meets that definition. Should this be contested, it would effectively make ALL marriages in Texas invalid and/or illegal. ;-)

It's purely academic, yet appropriate that it should come back to bite them in the @ss.

If you're interested, the story was reported here on HuffPost, on the Gay Marriage Big News Page.

[LegalCodex]

02:33 AM on 12/01/2009

"Should this be contested, it would effectively make ALL marriages in Texas invalid and/or illegal. ;-)"

I would be very happy if this came to be. Marriage is an obsolete custom.

[Fred Hood]

09:57 PM on 11/30/2009

I forget how many billions do we give Argentina......to influence their actions

[DallasDon]

10:32 PM on 11/30/2009

Your point is well taken Fred Hood.

America is in no position to judge the conduct of other nations until we first establish equality for all here at home.

[ducttape]

09:57 PM on 11/30/2009

How come in all the lesbian couples there's one cute girl and one really butch woman that couldn't get a man?

[DallasDon]

10:25 PM on 11/30/2009

Oh you poor Dear......

You have my sympathy.

Relationships are much more complex than your question implies; There are just some things you'll never understand ducttape.

[LegalCodex]

02:35 AM on 12/01/2009

Because society still influences people, regardless of sexuality, to pursue relationships in which there is a dominant and a submissive partner.Man and woman, femme and butch, top and bottom.