News

Wednesday January 6, 2010


First “Gay Marriage” Registered in Argentina

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent

TIERRA DEL FUEGO, Argentina, January 5, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Two HIV-positive men were registered in a “marriage” in the province of Tierra del Fuego in Argentina last week, in opposition to a majority of Argentinians, the leadership of the Catholic Church, and the written law of Argentina’s civil code.

If the union is permitted to stand, it will be the first in Latin America, which is known for its strong tradition of family values.

Alex Freyre, 39, and Jose María Di Bello, 41, had attempted getting “married” in Buenos Aires on December 1 of last year in commemoration of World AIDS Day, but were thwarted at the last minute by a judicial order blocking the event.

However, they succeeded on December 28 in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina’s southernmost province, after the governor issued a special decree permitting the union.

The actions of governor Fabiana Rios are opposed to a majority of Argentineans, according to a recent poll by the firm Poliarquía, which indicates that 60% are against “homosexual marriage” and only 35% in favor.

It also contradicts the laws of Argentina, which have been the subject of dueling judicial rulings over such unions since at least 2007. Two contradictory rulings were issued by different judges in November of last year, one that upheld the written law, which defines marriage as the union of a man and woman, and one that struck it down for being “unconstitutional.” The December 1 ruling also upheld the law.

The Faculty of Law of the Argentinian Catholic University (UCA) issued a statement following the event, calling it a “clear violation of the most elementary constitutional norms and principles in effect in our country,” and calling it an act of “absolute nullity” which “therefore does not have civil effects, a circumstance that should be a matter of review by the competent civil authorities.”

Argentinian law “clearly and imperatively establishes that marriage is the stable and permanent union between a man and a woman, with the purpose of founding a family and therefore open to the gift of the transmission of life” the professors added.

According to Argentinian newspaper End of the World Daily (so named because of Tierra del Fuego’s position at the southern tip of the continent), a judicial order has already been issued for an investigation of the case following a motion filed by a former provincial legislator, and a local attorney.

Juan Carlos Romanin, Catholic bishop of the diocese of Rio Gallegos, where the “marriage” took place, pointed out that “in homosexual unions the biological and anthropological elements of matrimony and family are completely absent.”

“In such unions, not only is the possibility of procreation denied, but in the case of a possible adoption, the child is being denied the experience of maternity and paternity,” he added.

Previous LifeSiteNews coverage:

Argentina Judge Orders Halt to Nation’s First Gay “Marriage” On Eve of Ceremony

Court Allows Homosexual “Marriage” in Argentina

Homosexual Pair Attempts “Matrimony” in Argentina

Argentine Appeals Court Rules Against “Gay Marriage”