This Thursday the first marriage ceremony between same-sex couples in our country was held, after the entry into force of the Equal Marriage Law. LGTBI + organizations stressed that it is a “tremendous” day in the fight against discrimination towards the group of sexual and gender diversity.
In a historic event, same-sex couples began to marry this Thursday, after the Equal Marriage Law was approved on December 7.
The foregoing, within the framework of compliance with a Friendly Settlement Agreement signed by the State of Chile before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
Javier Silva and Jaime Nazar, Parents of two children, they were the first couple to contract the bond in a ceremony held at the Civil Registry of Providencia.
The ceremony was also attended by the Minister of Justice, Hernán Larraín; the Undersecretary of Human Rights, Lorena Recabarren and leaders of LGTBI+ movements.
“We never imagined that this moment would come in Chile. How nice to feel that we are experiencing change and that we are part of that change, and that the future of Chile is much better, “said Jaime, after marrying Javier.
Isabel Amor, from Fundación Iguales: “It is a “tremendous” day
“We congratulate the first husbands of Chile. We are especially excited that it is a couple with children, because one of the main reasons why the couple wanted to get married was to protect their children, “said the Movilh spokeswoman, Javiera Zúñiga.
For his part, the leader of the same organization, Roland Jimenez, He regretted that the Government did not guarantee full equality for marriage time requests.
“Many couples are being given time for 2023 and the conditions to make links in regions or in poor areas of the country are not, to date, assured,” he questioned.
Isabel Amor, director of the Fundación Iguales, meanwhile, he told Efe that it is a “tremendous” day in the fight against discrimination against 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.
Couple who sued Chile before the IACHR will ask for an appointment
Meanwhile, the couple sued the State of Chile before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Ramón Gómez and Gonzalo Velásquez, will go this Thursday to the Civil Registry Office of Santiago to request an hour of marriage.
This will be the third time that the couple will go to the same office to ask for an appointment. The two previous times (in 2016 and 2019), the time was denied, which led to the lawsuit against Chile before the IACHR.
Gómez and Velásquez, with a 22-year relationship, are the authors of the story “Nicolás has two dads” and were the first couple to prosecute in Chile the right to be recognized as a family, thus giving way to various international lawsuits.
The history of the Equal Marriage Law
On December 8, our country gave the green light to the bill that legalized marriages between same-sex couples, who until now and since 2015 could only join under the legal figure of Civil Union Agreement (AUC), that does not recognize filiative rights.
With this decision, Chile became the eighth country in Latin America to recognize same-sex marriage after Costa Rica, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay and several states in Mexico.
The bill was presented in 2017 thanks to the impetus of the former president Michelle Bachelet, but it was stalled for nearly four years in Congress.
In a surprising turn of events, the President Sebastian Pinera 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.
82% of same-sex couples plan to marry
According to national survey “Same-sex couples vs. same-sex marriage”, applied by Movilh last November to 1,878 people, 82.8% plan to marry.
While 91.8% of civil cohabitants will annul said bond to marry.
In addition, 84.5% have suffered discrimination in various spaces and places due to the prohibition of same-sex marriage.
For this reason, 86.5% estimate that the main effect that the approval of this law will have will be “the improvement in the quality of life of same-sex couples and their children.”
For 76.9% one of the main purposes of marriage is “to give stability to the children in case they have them”.
This is in line with the fact that 16.8% of the couples surveyed declared they had children. Meanwhile, for 75.3% the main purpose is “helping each other as a couple”.