CORRECTION: An original version of this post contained the following phrase "Uruguay is the second Latin American nation to adopt a national marriage equality law following Argentina." Taking under consideration reader comments and after discussing the issue with marriage equality advocates based in Brazil, the phrase now reads "Uruguay is the third Latin American nation to adopt a national marriage equality law following Argentina and Brazil.
Same-sex couples in Uruguay began to marry yesterday after a required 90-day waiting period from the day president José Mujica signed a marriage equality bill into law.
But none of those couples earned the title of "first to marry". That's because on August 5th, the first day on which couples were able to apply for a license, a Civil Court judge headed to a hospital and granted a marriage license "in-extremis" to a man dying of cancer and his partner who sat by his bedside.
The name of the couple might never be known since they requested to remain anonymous.
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Rodrigo Borda and Sergio Miranda, the first couple to apply for marriage in Montevideo on the 6th, hoped theirs would be the first marriage as the law went into effect yesterday and invited media to wait for them outside the private civil court ceremony at 11:30am.
International news agencies called them the first and AFP posted a video of the happy couple after the civil ceremony in which Miranda states “While in Russia they incite violence and hunt us down and kill us like the Nazi regime, in Uruguay we can get married, we can celebrate love. So I’m very happy to live in a country like Uruguay and not like Russia. That’s all I have to say.”
Uruguayan press, though, report that Rubén López and Mario Bonilla, together for 21 years, were married earlier yesterday morning in the city of Mercedes. It was also the first time that they were able to register as the joint parents of Camilo whom they adopted 17 years ago. Screen cap of the couple with their son at the emotional wedding ceremony above, video below.
Of course, of the 20 or so couples who applied for a marriage license on Aug. 5th, no one knows if other couples married earlier than they did and kept their ceremonies private.
Uruguay is the third Latin American nation to adopt a national marriage equality law following Argentina and Brazil.
UPDATE: Over at Reddit, a user posted this photo of the U.S. Embassy in Uruguay. Supposedly it's in celebration of the marriage equality law going into effect :)
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5 comments:
I love this! But Uruguay is the 3rd Latin American country. Brazil was the second Latin American country with national level marriage equality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recognition_of_same-sex_unions_in_Brazil.
Gotta give credit where credit is due!
As far as I understand, same-sex couples in Brazil can indeed get married if they go through a court process and, depending on the Brazilian state, that process can be easy or riddled with problems. Brazil, though, as a nation has yet to approve a marriage equality law legislatively.
Andres, their Supreme Court's ruling that all notaries must perform same sex marriages everywhere in Brazil makes it legal nationwide...and without having to convert a civil union to a marriage in front of a judge. Same as for straight people. Not legislative, but still the second country in Latin America. May 14, 2013 ruling.
Saludos desde Uruguay y gracias por difundir estas noticias. Tuvimos el honor de ser los primeros uruguayos en casarnos en el exterior y también fuimos la primera pareja que obtuvo toda la documentación que acredita nuestro estado civil. Saludos!!! Omar Salsamendi y Federico Macerattini.
The following correction has been posted to the body of the post:
An original version of this post contained the following phrase "Uruguay is the second Latin American nation to adopt a national marriage equality law following Argentina."
Taking under consideration reader comments and after discussing the issue with marriage equality advocates based in Brazil, the phrase now reads "Uruguay is the third Latin American nation to adopt a national marriage equality law following Argentina and Brazil.
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