After an emotional all-night session and 16 hours of debate, Argentina legalized marriage equality and became the first country in Latin America allow gays and lesbians to wed.
After 15 hours of debate, the Senate voted 33 to 27 in favor of the measure, which was sponsored by the government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. For weeks, she waged a bitter war of words with the Roman Catholic Church over the measure. The church organized large protests throughout the country on Tuesday night involving tens of thousands of opponents of the law. Some senators criticized the Senate leadership on Wednesday for not allowing a vote on an alternative bill to authorize civil unions for gay couples.
The proposal cleared Argentina's House of Deputies in May. President Fernández supports gay marriage and is expected to sign the law after her return from a state visit to China, reports Reuters.
"Fernandez told state news agency Telam the law was a 'positive step that defends minority rights.' A nominally Roman Catholic country, Argentina is now at the vanguard of gay rights in the region.Church leaders had campaigned against the measure, rallying tens of thousands of opponents, from children to elderly nuns, in a demonstration outside Congress on Tuesday. But opinion polls show most Argentines support gay marriage. Pundits have said Fernandez's stance was meant to help bolster her party's leftist credentials. Nestor Kirchner, Fernandez's predecessor and husband, is widely expected to run again for the presidency in October 2011."
The staunchly Catholic nation becomes the first nation to legalize marriage equality nationwide in Latin America. Mexico City legalized marriage equality last December. "Same-sex civil unions have been legalized in Uruguay, Buenos Aires and some states in Mexico and Brazil," adds the AP. "Colombia's Constitutional Court granted same-sex couples inheritance rights and allowed them to add their partners to health insurance plan."
Argentina becomes the tenth nation to mandate marriage equality. The other nine nations include The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa, Norway, Sweden and most recently Iceland and Portugal. Five U.S. states and the District of Columbia have legalized same-sex marriage, as well as Mexico City.
Congratulations to Argentina. The South American nation—which was led by a repressive right wing military dictatorship for much of the 1970s and 1980s—has emerged as a beacon of progress and tolerance. Viva Argentina!