Uruguayan Senate approves gay marriage.
The modifications refer to aspects of wording and some variations in the Civil Code, in which the concepts of "husband and wife" are now all categorized as "spouses"; the text will now return to the Chamber of Deputies for final approval of the changes that were made.
On the 21 - The Uruguayan Senate approved on Tuesday (02) a law that legalizes civil marriage between people of the same sex. Of the parliamentarians present in the Chamber, 23 voted in favor and 8 against. The proposal began to be debated at 9:30 am this morning, after a Holy Week in which the Catholic Church spoke out against the project and asked its legislators to vote with “conscience”.
The Broad Front (FA) voted in favor, while the National Party and the Colorado Party gave their legislators the freedom to decide. Seven legislators from the National Party voted against, as did one from the Colorado Party.
The first to speak today was Senator Rafael Michelini (FA), the bill's rapporteur. He said that gay marriage is a "profound change" for society and that perhaps in a few years it could be compared to the abolition of slavery or the law that establishes an eight-hour workday.
He questioned the extent to which the State can "interfere" in people's private lives. "Is the State going to interfere in our bedrooms? I believe we have here a profound issue of freedoms. There should be no distinction of race, age or sex," opined the senator.
Michelini also defended the right of same-sex couples to adopt children. He stated that the most important thing is not to have a traditional family, but rather to "receive love."
Francisco Gallinal, one of the senators from the Nationalist Party who voted against the bill, said that gay marriage is not egalitarian because it questions the current institution of marriage. He said that "if tomorrow a sector of society emerges that wants marriage between more than two people, between three or four, it's no longer so egalitarian. The new marriage is not egalitarian because it is not exclusive, it is exclusionary," he stated.
The modifications refer to aspects of wording and some variations in the Civil Code, in which the concepts of "husband and wife" are now all categorized as "spouses." The text will now return to the Chamber of Deputies for final approval of the changes that were made.
With information from El País and LaRed21