Chile celebrated this Thursday the first weddings between same-sex couplesa historical fact in the country celebrated across the board and one of the greatest demands of LGTBI+ groups in recent decades.
In the civil registry of the neighborhood of Providencia, in Santiago, at least two couples got married among cheers from dozens of spectators and representatives of some related platforms and gay and lesbian activists.
“We are very happy to finally be able to be a family, but this is also a very important step for the country. It is the beginning of a Chile that is beginning to work on equality,” said Jaime Nazar, who was able to marry Javier Silva after 7 years of relationship.
Isabel Amor, director of the Fundación Iguales, one of the LGBTI+ platforms most important, pointed out Eph that it is a “tremendous” day in the fight against discrimination towards the group of sexual and gender diversity
“We need once and for all to end all the hateful differences generated by the homophobia that has permeated our country from its foundations,” he argued.
On December 8, the southern country gave the green light to the bill that legalized marriage between same-sex coupleswhich until now and since 2015 could only unite under the legal figure of the Civil Union Agreement (AUC), which does not recognize filiative rights.
With this decision, Chile became the eighth country in Latin America to recognize same-sex marriage after Costa Rica, EcuadorArgentina, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay and various states of Mexico.
The bill was presented in 2017 thanks to the impetus of former socialist president Michelle Bachelet (2014-2018), but was stalled for almost four years in Parliament.
In a surprising turn of events, Conservative President Sebastián Piñera said last year that “the time has come” to approve it and instructed Parliament to discuss it as a matter of urgency.
In less than six months and despite the reluctance of the most conservative sectors of the ruling right, the legislators approved the initiative, in part thanks to the pressure and push of the LGTBI + platforms.
In addition to allowing marriage, the new law recognizes the filiative rights of both parents over their children, eliminates homosexuality as a cause for wrongful divorce and recognizes unions contracted abroad. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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