If I decide to get married to my same-sex partner, and I don’t want to go to Massachusetts (although I do like Boston!) or Connecticut, Iowa, or Vermont (or New Hampshire starting next year), I can still head to Canada… Or Belgium, or the Netherlands (always wanted to go to Amsterdam!), or Norway, or Spain (mmmm Madrid!), or Sweden…
Or soon, to Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, where a court ruling has determined that the city’s civil code limiting marriage to people of different genders is illegal.
Judge Gabriela Seijas, responding to a legal challenge from a same-sex couple, has ordered the city’s civil registry department to honor their union. “The law should treat each person with equal respect in relation to each person’s singularities without the need to understand or regulate them,” she said.
Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri has resisted pressure to appeal, acknowledging that the ruling is “a very important step” and adding some interesting commentary:
“[W]e have to live together and accept reality. … The world is headed in that direction. … I had an important internal debate, weighing my upbringing with my search for the best customs and best liberties for society. … What we have to learn is to live in liberty without violating the rights of others. … It’s the same as happened with divorce several decades ago — a very intense debate. And today it is something very natural,” the mayor said.
And of course, this statement was posted on his Facebook page. That’s progress on TWO fronts, I’d say!
December 1, 2009 at 9:08 am
[...] Aires marriages Two weeks ago I posted about the court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in Buenos Aires. Today, December 1st, is the day that the couple (Alex Freyre and Jose Maria di Bello) planned for [...]
December 29, 2009 at 7:21 pm
[...] Remember Jose Maria di Bello and Alex Freyre, the gay couple who were slated to be the first same-sex marriage in Buenos Aires? A judge had ordered that they be issued a marriage license, then a second judge blocked it, and [...]