Thousands protested against a proposed law to allow gay marriage in front of Congres in Buenos Aires.
Argentina, Latin America: Week in Review

Gay Marriage Bill Goes to Vote in Argentina’s Senate; Both Supporters And Protesters Take To the Streets

July 15, 2010 By Staff
Protesters demonstrate against a law to allow gay marriage in front of Congress in Buenos Aires.

Protesters demonstrated on Tuesday night against a law to allow gay marriage in front of Congress in Buenos Aires.

Today in Latin America

Top Story — Argentina’s Senate is set to decide on whether or not to legalize gay marriage, after thousands of people protested in the capital against the bill.

The proposed bill has split the Senate and created a divide between the country’s Roman Catholic Church and the administration of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who supports the bill.

“They are portraying this as a religious moral issue and as a threat to ‘the natural order,’ when what we are really doing is looking at a reality that is already there,” Fernández de Kirchner said, according to The New York Times. “It would be a terrible distortion of democracy if they denied minorities their rights.”

Polls in the country show that nearly 70 percent of the population support giving gay couples the same marital rights as heterosexuals.

However, on Tuesday night tens of thousands of people protested outside of Argentina’s congress in the capital of Buenos Aires against the bill.

“In the name of modernizing human rights, what this bill actually does is produce a major step backwards for humanity,” said Roman Catholic Bishop Antonio Marino, according to The CBC.

Throughout Buenos Aires and in various cities throughout Argentina, those in favor of the bill also came out to protest, as there has recently been a number of gay marriages in Argentina that were annulled by the Supreme Court.

“Same-sex families already exist, gay families already exist, so the task that they (the senate) will have… is to legalize the situation of all those families,” said one protester, according to The BBC.

If the bill passes through Argentina’s senate, it will join Mexico City as one of the few place in Latin American that allows gay couples to wed.

Just Published at the Latin America News Dispatch

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1 Comment

Love knows no borders. Even in the animal kingdom there are same gender preferences. Why would humans be different ?

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