COLOMBIA: Deadline For Same-Sex Marriage Ruling Is This Friday

The Washington Blade notes that same-sex couples in Colombia might be able to register for marriages beginning this Friday.

The country’s Constitutional Court in 2011 ruled gays and lesbians can legally register their relationships after June 20 if lawmakers failed to extend to them the same benefits heterosexuals receive through marriage. The Colombian Senate in April overwhelmingly rejected a measure that would have allowed same-sex couples to tie the knot in the South American country. Marcela Sánchez Buitrago, executive director of Colombia Diversa, an LGBT advocacy group, told the Washington Blade on Monday that some notaries have already said they will not marry same-sex couples after the court’s deadline passes. They would instead allow them to enter into a “solemn contract” that is similar to an agreement between two people who buy a house together.

Same-sex marriage is legal in the South American nations of Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil.