Argentine same-sex marriage blocked

Buenos Aires

A national judge on Nov. 30 blocked a city judge’s ruling that legalized gay marriage in Buenos Aires — canceling the city’s first same-sex wedding scheduled for Dec. 1 — but the nation’s Supreme Court promptly announced it will rule on the issue.

Activists Alex Freyre and José María Di Bello planned their wedding after Judge Gabriela Seijas ruled Nov. 16 in a case the couple filed that it is unconstitutional not to treat everyone equally under the law.

But Civil Court 85 Judge Marta Gómez Alsina declared Dec. 1 that Seijas had overstepped her authority in determining that the nation’s ban on same-sex marriage did not apply to Freyre and Di Bello.

Buenos Aires, some other Argentine cities and the province of Río Negro already have civil-union laws for same-sex couples. Elsewhere in Latin America, similar laws are in force in Uruguay, Mexico City, the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, and the Mexican state of Coahuila, which borders Texas.

Same-sex marriage is legal in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and the U.S. states of Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont and, starting in January, New Hampshire.

By Rex Wockner