It took 15 hours of debate in the Argentine Senate and a bitter battle between Argentine President Christina Fernandez and the Catholic Church in that country but it’s official – legislators in Argentina have passed a law that makes it the 10th country in the world to legalize same sex marriage.
The vote was 33-27. President Fernandez, who has staked her political reputation on getting this bill passed, was very pleased with the victory.
“I am very satisfied, it has been a positive vote,” President Fernandez told Time Magazine from Shanghai, where she is on an official tour of China. “This is a positive step that defends the right of a minority.”
The new bill will give gay couples the same inheritance and adoption rights as heterosexual married couples. The Catholic Church in Argentina fought the bills passage with the same vehemence that the religious right has confronted homosexual marriage in the United States.
Buenos Aires archbishop and Cardinal Jorge Bergolio attacked the bill as “a plan to destroy God’s plan. This is no mere legislative bill, it is a move by the father of lies to confuse and deceive the children of God.” Fernandez has always been willing to go head to head with the church, however, and she responded to the Cardinal’s comments by comparing his reaction to the behavior of the church during the Inquisition.
Gay marital rights are a hot button issue, particularly in the United States where reform is being fought out on a state by state level. Adoption rights, though often separated from the question of legal marriage in the U.S., are a particularly concerning factor of the debate for parents. Without a clear establishment of parental rights for a same sex partner, retaining custody after separation or death of one partner can be extremely challenging, if not impossible.
