Buenos Aires, Dec 29 (Inditop.com/EFE) Two men have wed in the southernmost tip of Argentina in the first marriage of its kind in Latin America, one of the spouses joined in the ceremony confirmed.
“We’re very happy and proud,” said Argentine Jose Maria Di Bello, who Monday married countryman Alex Freyre. The two needed special authorisation from Tierra del Fuego Gov. Fabiana Rios since gay marriage is not legally authorised in Argentina.
Freyre, 39, and Di Bello, 41, had planned to marry in Buenos Aires Dec 1, World AIDS Day, since both men suffer from the disease. But due to contradictory judicial rulings, the Argentine capital’s civil registry office refused to perform the marriage ceremony.
“We just got married,” Di Bello said in announcing the wedding to Todo Noticias television, adding that the marriage was allowed to go through thanks to the government of Tierra del Fuego province, of which Ushuaia is the capital.
Di Bello thanked Gov. Rios, who issued a decree ordering the Ushuaia civil registry office to marry the couple.
“We knew the governor was a person who sympathises with this cause and we’re extremely grateful to her,” he said.
“We hope there aren’t any new judicial objections,” Di Bello said, adding that he hopes this paves the way for other gay couples to marry in the country.
One of the witnesses to the marriage, Claudio Morgado, head of the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism, characterised the ceremony as “historic”, adding that his agency acted as “facilitator” by providing the couple with necessary legal advice.
The news of the wedding immediately touched off controversy, with Eduardo Sambrizzi, who represents the Corporation of Catholic Lawyers, saying that the marriage is “null and void” because Argentine law does not allow same-sex couples to wed.
“What happened in Ushuaia is a show,” Sambrizzi told the online edition of La Nacion daily, adding that the ceremony was in violation of one law prohibiting same-sex marriage and another banning people from marrying outside their home district.
Four Argentine cities currently recognise same-sex civil unions, although those arrangements are not equivalent to gay marriage, which typically implies the right to adopt children and inherit wealth from one’s spouse.
Buenos Aires in 2002 became the first city in Latin America to allow same-sex civil unions, while Mexico City earlier this month became the first city in Latin America to legalise gay marriage.
