Tag Archives: Colombia

COLOMBIA: Judges Declare That Two Couples Are Married, Gov’t To Appeal

Blabbeando‘s Andres Duque reports a development in Colombia’s complicated journey towards marriage equality: In a surprising statement released on Wednesday, Colombian attorney and long-time LGBT-rights advocate Germán Humerto Rincón Perfetti announced that a civil court judge had declared Julio Albeiro Cantor Borbón and William Alberto Castro Franco “united in civil matrimony” in a ceremony that took place on September 20th. …

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COLOMBIA: First Civil Union Performed

Colombia saw its first legal civil union yesterday. Or maybe it was a marriage. Nobody is sure. The newly legalized couple cheered the ceremony as a marriage, although experts cautioned that a high court ruling that deemed the union legal did not make it the equivalent of marriage. “We are civilly married,” Gonzalo Ruiz, 44, told The Associated Press just …

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COLOMBIA: High Court Rebukes Campaign To Block Same-Sex Marriages

Colombia’s Constitutional Court has told Inspector General Alejandro Ordóñez to drop his campaign to block same-sex marriages. J. Lester Feder reports at Buzzfeed: Ordoñez had been threatening disciplinary action against any official who took up this authority. His case was based on the fact that the court’s ruling did not specifically say that couples can “marry,” nor did it directly …

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Judge OK’s Colombia’s First Gay Marriage

Michael Lavers has more at the Washington Blade: Caracol Radio reported that Carmen Lucía Rodríguez Díaz, a civil judge in Bogotá, the country’s capital, “defended the viability of marriage for gay couples” in a five page ruling she wrote after a couple identified as Diego and Juan petitioned her to legally recognize their relationship. The two men are expected to …

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COLOMBIA: Deadline For Same-Sex Marriage Ruling Is This Friday

The Washington Blade notes that same-sex couples in Colombia might be able to register for marriages beginning this Friday. The country’s Constitutional Court in 2011 ruled gays and lesbians can legally register their relationships after June 20 if lawmakers failed to extend to them the same benefits heterosexuals receive through marriage. The Colombian Senate in April overwhelmingly rejected a measure …

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Colombian Senate Rejects Marriage

As expected, the Colombian Senate today rejected its same-sex marriage bill by a vote of 51-17. 

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COLOMBIA: Bogota Mayor Unfurls Pro-Gay Banner As Senate Considers Marriage

Colombia’s Senate is expected to vote down its marriage equality bill today after a debate which is scheduled to begin within the hour of this writing.  Despite that prediction, today Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro ordered the above banner to be unfurled over city hall as LGBT activists demonstrated outside. Watch the debate and vote live here.  More photos from the …

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Matt Baume: Marriage News Watch

Clip recap: “Marriage equality continues to spread, with major milestones this week that span from the Great Lakes region to the Mid-Atlantic. Plus, New Zealand becomes the 13th country to legalize the freedom to marry, and international progress continues from Colombia to Vietnam.”

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Colombian Senate Puts Off Marriage Vote

The Colombian Senate was expected to vote on marriage equality yesterday, but instead they approved a vote to put it off for one more week. The Colombian Senate decides to suspend marriage equality vote until Tuesday (23 April) by a vote of 35-30. Only 65 senators attended the vote out of the Senate’s 102 members. During an intense discussion that …

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Colombian Senate To Vote On Marriage

The Colombian Senate will vote on same-sex marriage today. The Colombian Consitutional Court issued a ruling in 2011 (Sentencia C577/11) that requires the Congress to act by June 20, 2013, or else same-sex couples can present themselves to legal notaries to contract for their legal rights. The Court ruled that same-sex couples have equal legal rights to found a family, …

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Colombian Senate Cancels Marriage Debate After Protests From Gay Activists

J. Lester Feder reports at Buzzfeed: In canceling the debate, senate president Barreras clearly placed blame on the LGBT activists. “Hooligans will not be permitted in Congress because it is the home of democracy,” he said in remarks published by El Espectador. “I have decided to suspend the discussion of this debate until we meet with the leaders of this …

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COLOMBIA: Marriage Bill Advances

Yesterday Colombia’s marriage equality bill passed by a vote of 10-5 in a Senate committee.  Via Gay Star News: The bill will now face a vote in the Colombian Senate however no date was yet set for a debate and vote. Senator Armando Benedetti, of the ruling Social Party of National Unity party said: ‘The marriage of couples of same-sex …

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Madame Secretary Parties Down

Good for her.

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COLOMBIA: Authorities Claim Gay Priests Hired Own Killers In Bizarre Suicide Pact

The bereaved and devoted parishioners of Father Richard Piffano, 37, and Father Rafael Reatiga, 35, say the men were killed by street robbers in all too common Colombian scenario. The police have another theory. Two Colombian priests who were found shot dead in the capital Bogota a year ago themselves hired the assassins who killed them, prosecutors say. They said …

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COLOMBIA: High Court Rejects Marriage

Colombia’s Constitutional Court has rejected hearing a lawsuit that would legalize same-sex marriage. The Constitutional Court ruled that the request filed by two attorneys for equal rights for gay couples was flawed and presented in an irregular manner, La FM Radio reports. The president of the Constitutional Court, Judge Mauricio Gonzalez Cuervo, said that “nothing is final, and it is …

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Cooking Is Hard

Students at a culinary school in Colombia have created a Viagra-laced parfait called “the love dessert.” But it can’t actually be sold because of prescription drug laws. Points for passion fruit as an ingredient, though. (Tipped by JMG reader Richard in Vancouver)

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Gays Advance Again In Colombia

Yesterday Colombia’s Constitutional Court granted sweeping equal “civil, political, social and economic rights” to gay couples. The high court ordered complete equality in criminal and civil court cases and disciplinary investigations. The latest ruling means that the gay partner can claim pension from the military if his or her same sex partner dies and are allowed to refuse to testify …

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Advance For Colombian Gays

Gay rights continue to advance across South America, with Colombia’s government the latest to extend benefits to same-sex partners. However, marriage equality there continues to be thwarted by the Catholic Church. Colombia’s Constitutional Court has ruled that the government must extend pension benefits to same-sex partners. The court ruled that same-sex partners must be given the same pension and health …

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A Global Swell Of Anti-Gay Hate

What a strange Pride Month it has been so far for LGBT folks around the world. On the sort of plus side, Colombia tried but failed to grant gay couple similar rights to those of straight couples and Costa Rica is contemplating a similar attempt. On the downside, we’ve got Russia with banned Pride marches, violence against gays, and an …

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