Chilean Congress approves equal marriage

The Chilean Congress approved the equal marriage law on Tuesday after a final process in the Chamber of Deputies, sealing an initiative expected for years by same-sex couples.

After its approval shortly before in the Senate, the Chamber of Deputies decided to immediately vote on the bill that equates rights and obligations regardless of the sex of the people who make up the marriage, adopting the initiative by 82 votes in favor, 20 against and two abstentions.

“I am tremendously moved. I have a little trouble keeping my composure. It has been a race of several kilometers ”, said Isabel Amor, director of the Fundación Iguales and who remained in the stands of the Congress awaiting the historic vote.

“With the approval of equal marriage, Chile has taken a historic and decisive step towards the advancement and consolidation of the human rights of same-sex couples and homoparental families, all of which, without distinction, have been discriminated against and violated since the origins of our country, “said a communication from the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh), the promoter of equal marriage in Chile for years.

Minutes before the express vote in Deputies, the Senate had approved the initiative by 21 votes in favor, eight against and three abstentions.

The new norm modifies the Civil Code and other legal bodies, allowing the marriage of same-sex couples and regulating the rights and obligations that those who celebrate it will acquire.

Differences in aspects of affiliation, labor rights and updating of the gender identity law that emerged last week between the houses of Congress forced the formation of the Mixed Commission, which met on Monday and forced a new vote in both houses.

Chile thus becomes the ninth country in America to legalize same-sex marriage after Canada, the United States, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. In Mexico it is legal in 14 of the 32 states of the country. (I)