Same-Sex Marriage in Chile
Same-Sex Marriage in Chile
The Americas are at a crossroads in granting marriage rights to all couples, but Chile’s courts remain adamantly opposed to extending the benefits of marriage.
Marriage equality for same-sex couples is gaining new momentum in the United States. One month ago, President Obama announced that “same-sex couples should be able to get married.” Meanwhile, major multinational corporations and top consumer brands are also coming out in favor of marriage equality. In February, Proposition 8, a voter referendum that reversed marriage legalization in California, was struck down by the United States Court of Appeals. And just one week ago, the part of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act that prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in states and countries where it’s legal, was nullified in a United States Court of Appeals ruling. Opinion polls show a majority of Americans, especially the younger population, believe marriage rights should be extended to same-sex couples.
Is this just a U.S. phenomenon, or are the rest of the Americas following a similar path?
The Americas are in the vanguard of marriage equality. Canada, Argentina, Mexico, and Brazil allow or recognize same-sex marriage either nationally or in specific localities. Combining those countries with the six U.S. states plus the District of Columbia that recognize same-sex marriage means that 434 million of 913 million people in the Americas—almost half of the population—live in countries or states that assure marriage equality. In July 2013, Colombia's 46 million citizens will probably join the list: a 2011 Colombian Constitutional Court decision ordered the national congress to adopt legislation providing same-sex couples equal rights. Several additional jurisdictions—Ecuador, Uruguay, Brazil, French Guiana, Mérida (Venezuela), and Coahuila (Mexico)—have taken the half-measure of allowing or recognizing civil unions of same-sex couples.
However, the consensus toward marriage equality is not seen across our hemisphere. Chile, Peru, Bolivia, and Paraguay, along with Central America and the Caribbean, prohibit or do not recognize marriage or any other form of protection for relationships of same-sex couples.
In Chile, recent rulings from its Supreme Court (April 2012) and Constitutional Tribunal (November 2011) held that same-sex couples cannot get married in Chile, and if even legally wed elsewhere, they cannot even be married in Chile.
Secretary Clinton declared in Geneva last summer that gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights. This is one reason why the Chilean rulings were denounced as human rights violations by the Movimiento de Integración y Liberación Homosexual (MOVILH), Chile's largest and oldest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) rights organization. MOVILH filed a complaint on May 16, 2012 at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights against Chile as part of its continuing struggle for the rights of LGBTI persons. It was only recently, following a March 2012 brutal bashing death of a young gay man, Daniel Zamudio-Vera, that Chile adopted a non-discrimination statute. Marriage isn't even on the horizon; civil union legislation has stalled for years.
Read the full article at www.AmericasQuarterly.org.
Hunter T. Carter is a partner at Arent Fox LLP.
