CHILE: Government To Formally End Its Opposition To Same-Sex Marriage

Just last month the Chilean Congress issued its final approval for civil unions. And yesterday the government reached an agreement to formally drop its opposition to a pending same-sex marriage lawsuit. Michael Lavers reports at the Washington Blade:

Members of President Michelle Bachelet’s administration on Tuesday met with representatives of the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation, an LGBT advocacy group, in Santiago, the Chilean capital, to finalize “an amicable settlement” in the case filed in 2012 on behalf of three same-sex couples who are seeking marriage rights in the South American country.

The Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation in a press release it posted to its website said the government’s decision to end opposition to nuptials for gays and lesbians in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights case is part of a broader agreement that includes the introduction of a same-sex marriage bill in the Chilean Congress.

“We left the meeting very satisfied,” said the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation. “We appreciate the government’s good disposition towards our proposals and principles, which stress that marriage equality is a human rights issue.” The Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation on its website said the group and the government will sign a formal agreement in April. It remains unclear when the Bachelet administration and the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation will formally introduce the same-sex marriage bill in the Chilean Congress.

Elsewhere in South America same-sex marriage is legal in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. Civil unions or partnership laws exist Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador. A civil unions bill is due to be heard in Peru next month. No relationship recognitions presently exist in Bolivia, Guyana, Paraguay, Suriname, or Venezuela.