Same-sex marriage in Argentina

Unregistered cohabitation

In December 2005, a judge in the province of Córdoba ordered that all prisons must authorize conjugal visits for gay prisoners and permit sexual relations between inmates who form relationships in prison. On August 19, 2008, the Government of Argentina announced that same-sex couples who had cohabited for over five years would be granted the right to collect their deceased partners' pensions. This marked the first nationwide recognition of unregistered cohabitation and rights for same-sex partners. Following this announcement, four major labor unions—representing teachers, commerce employees, executives, and air-transport personnel—extended National Security System medical benefits to employees' same-sex partners. These benefits are provided through a health care system jointly operated by the government and unions.

Civil unions

In the first decade of the 21st century, civil unions ( or unión convivencial) were legalized in four jurisdictions in Argentina: the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (2002), the province of Río Negro (2003), the city of Villa Carlos Paz (2007), and the city of Río Cuarto (2009). Civil unions provide some of the rights granted to married couples and can only be entered into by couples who have lived together for a given time, usually one or two years.

Civil unions were legalized nationwide on 1 August 2015 when the Civil and Commercial Code (Código Civil y Commercial), which replaced the former Civil Code of Argentina, came into effect. The Code was approved by Parliament in October 2014 and promulgated by President Fernández de Kirchner on October 7, 2014. Couples in civil unions have access to hospital visitation rights, and inheritance and pension rights, among other rights and benefits.

Same-sex marriage

Legislative action

Two weeks before the 2009 mid-term elections, Justice Minister Aníbal Fernández said that he was in favor of starting a debate on the legalisation of same-sex marriage in the National Congress, adding that a gender-neutral law would "end discrimination", and that "many people [were] demanding it". Fernández also said that former President Néstor Kirchner, husband of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, supported having a wider discussion on same-sex marriage in the country. President Fernández de Kirchner's position on same-sex marriage was unknown at the time. Fernández said he was presently "working toward" presenting a draft law to Congress, and that his ministry had to first "evaluate all the different aspects of the issue". The draft bill was never presented to Congress. At this time, LGBT groups gradually won over members of the Chamber of Deputies to their cause, aided by the decentralized nature of congressional parties which allowed advocacy groups to post incremental gains.

In late 2009, the Argentine Congress considered two proposals, sponsored by Silvia Augsburger (Socialist Party) and Vilma Ibarra (New Encounter), to amend the Civil Code to permit same-sex marriages. Ibarra and Augsburger later agreed to merge their initiatives into a single draft law. On October 27, 2009, the same-sex marriage bill was debated in the Chamber of Deputies' General Law Committee and the Committee on Family, Women, Children and Youth. Ibarra expressed her desire to have same-sex marriage in Argentina approved by the end of 2009. Debate on the bill continued on November 5 and on November 10, before being postponed and resuming in March 2010. A survey taken at the time found that 70% of Argentines supported legalizing same-sex marriage.

On April 15, 2010, the Chamber of Deputies' General Law Committee and the Committee on Family, Women, Children and Youth recommended the legalization of same-sex marriage. On May 5, 2010, the Chamber of Deputies passed the same-sex marriage bill by a vote of 126 to 110. On July 6, the Senate's General Law Committee recommended rejection of the bill. The bill was originally scheduled to be voted on July 14. After a marathon session that extended into the early hours of the next day, the Senate passed the same-sex marriage bill by a vote of 33 to 27 on July 15. The bill was signed into law by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner on July 21. It was published in the Boletín Oficial de la República Argentina on July 22 and took effect that same day. The law grants same-sex couples all the rights and responsibilities of marriage, including the right to adopt children. The first marriage was performed on July 30, 2010, between Miguel Ángel Calefato and José Luis Navarro in Frías.

The Marriage Equality Law (, ){{efn|In some regional languages of Argentina:

• ,

: El matrimonio tendrá los mismos requisitos y efectos, con independencia de que los contrayentes sean del mismo o de diferente sexo.

:(Marriage shall have the same requisites and effects regardless of whether the parties are of the same or different sex.)

The law also allows transgender people to marry their partners. The first such marriage occurred in San Miguel de Tucumán on August 3, 2010, between Juan Carlos Lizárraga and Rody Humano, a transgender woman who was serving as a councilwoman in Bella Vista. On July 27, 2012, a Buenos Aires couple, Alejandro Grinblat and Carlos Dermgerd, became the first men in Latin America to obtain double paternity of a newborn. Their baby, Tobías, is the natural son of one of the two men and was born to a surrogate mother. He became the first person in Argentina with a birth certificate listing two fathers.

Judicial rulings

On February 14, 2007, activists María Rachid and Claudia Castrosín Verdú filed a legal appeal challenging the constitutionality of articles 172 and 188 of the Civil Code, which prevented same-sex couples from marrying.

On November 12, 2009, a court in Buenos Aires approved the marriage of a same-sex couple, Alex Freyre and José María Bello, ruling that articles 172 and 188 of the Civil Code were unconstitutional. Chief of Government Mauricio Macri said he would not appeal the ruling, but the marriage registration was blocked on November 30 by another court, pending review by the Supreme Court. In December 2009, the Governor of Tierra del Fuego, Fabiana Ríos, ordered the civil registry office to perform and register their marriage. On December 28, the two men were legally wed in Ushuaia, the provincial capital city, making them the first same-sex couple to marry in Latin America. On April 14, 2010, the marriage was declared null and void, but it technically remained legal because the decision was not communicated to the parties. The married couple said that they would appeal the court's decision if notified. The couple announced their divorce in 2015. Journalist Bruno Bimbi revealed that, although the men were both gay, they were not a couple and only acted as such as part of a plan to champion LGBT rights. On March 10, 2010, a judge in Buenos Aires declared a second same-sex marriage, between Damián Bernath and Jorge Salazar Capón, illegal. On April 16, a third same-sex marriage between two women was annulled by a judge who ruled that Argentine law limited marriage to "a man and a woman". Administrative Judge Elena Liberatori later overturned that decision and declared the marriage valid, ordering the Civil Registry of Buenos Aires to deliver the marriage license to the court.

Following the first legal same-sex marriage in December 2009, seven other same-sex couples were joined in legal matrimony in Argentina before the national law legalizing same-sex marriage took effect at the end of July 2010. At that time, the Supreme Court was considering several cases regarding the right of same-sex couples to marry. On July 2, 2010, some media outlets reported that the Supreme Court had prepared a ruling in favor of Rachid and Castrosín's 2007 case, but ultimately decided not to issue it following the legalization of same-sex marriage.

Statistics

By July 2012, about 5,800 same-sex marriages had occurred in Argentina according to the Argentine Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Trans People (FALGBT; Federación Argentina de Lesbianas, Gays, Bisexuales y Trans), distributed by jurisdiction as follows: Buenos Aires (1,455), the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (1,405), Santa Fe (664), Córdoba (632), Mendoza (389), Tucumán (199), Salta (178), Entre Ríos (128), Neuquén (101), San Juan (70), Misiones (64), Río Negro (64), La Pampa (58), Jujuy (56), Chaco (51), Catamarca (49), Chubut (47), Formosa (44), Santiago del Estero (42), San Luis (37), Santa Cruz (35), Corrientes (31), La Rioja (31), and Tierra del Fuego (14). By July 2014, 9,362 same-sex marriages had been performed in Argentina.

By 2017, more than 16,200 same-sex marriages had taken place in Argentina; 4,286 and 3,836 same-sex marriages were performed in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and the province of Buenos Aires, respectively. As Argentine law does not require couples who wish to wed to be Argentine nationals or permanent residents, many couples from abroad have come to Argentina to marry, including many couples from Chile and Paraguay. This has made Argentina, and especially Buenos Aires, a very popular marriage destination for same-sex couples. By July 2018, 18,000 same-sex couples had married in Argentina.

By the end of 2021, 5,675 same-sex marriages and 1,577 civil unions had taken place in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Figures for 2020 are lower than previous years because of the restrictions in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Religious performance

The Catholic Church opposes same-sex marriage and does not allow its priests to officiate at such marriages. In July 2010, while the marriage law was under consideration, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires (later Pope Francis), wrote a letter to Argentina's cloistered nuns in which he said: After L'Osservatore Romano reported this, several priests expressed their support for the law and one was defrocked. worked in favor of the law's passage and that Roman Catholic officials learned from their failed campaign against the same-sex marriage law to adopt a different tone in later debates on social issues such as parental surrogacy. As of 2005, more than three-fourths of Argentines identified themselves as Catholic, but less than two-fifths of them attended religious service at least once a month. Evangelical groups also joined in opposition. In December 2023, the Holy See published Fiducia supplicans, a declaration allowing Catholic priests to bless couples who are not considered to be married according to church teaching, including the blessing of same-sex couples. The Bishop of San Isidro, Óscar Vicente Ojea Quintana, issued a statement on 30 December that "a brutal experience of abandonment by the Church that has done so much harm to us and that has alienated so many brothers and sisters. Living in an irregular situation or carrying out a homosexual union does not obscure many aspects of the lives of people who seek to be enlightened with a blessing and upon receiving it, this becomes the greatest possible good for these brothers since it leads to conversion."

Some small Christian denominations authorise the blessing of same-sex unions. The Waldensian Evangelical Church of the River Plate became the first denomination in Argentina to do so in 2006. In 2006, a lesbian couple, Virgina Cortés and Jessica Schmukler, were blessed at the Danish Church of San Telmo in Buenos Aires, part of the Church of Denmark, the first blessing for a same-sex couple in Argentina. The Evangelical Methodist Church in Argentina allows its clergy the "freedom to accompany" same-sex couples and to bless their unions. In July 2016, Jesús Regules and Jonathan Díaz were married at the Iglesia Nuestra Señora del Valle in the town of San Roque near Maipú by an Anglican priest, the first church wedding for a same-sex couple in Argentina. A few months earlier, a lesbian couple, Victoria Escobar and Romina Charur, were married at a Reform Jewish synagogue in Buenos Aires, marking the first Jewish same-sex wedding in Latin America.

Public opinion

According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted between November 15, 2013, and January 8, 2014, 52% of Argentines supported same-sex marriage, while 40% were opposed. A 2015 Ipsos poll found that 59% of Argentines were in favour of same-sex marriage. A further 16% supported civil unions or other forms of legal recognition.

A September–October 2016 survey by the Varkey Foundation found that 73% of 18–21-year-olds supported same-sex marriage in Argentina.

The 2017 AmericasBarometer showed that 65% of Argentines supported same-sex marriage. This level of support was the second highest among the 11 South American countries polled, behind neighboring Uruguay at 75%. A May 2021 Ipsos poll showed that 73% of Argentines supported same-sex marriage, 9% supported civil unions but not marriage, while 10% were opposed to all legal recognition for same-sex couples, and 8% were undecided. In addition, 20% of Argentines had already attended the wedding of a same-sex couple.

A 2023 Ipsos poll showed that 70% of Argentines supported same-sex marriage, while 8% supported civil unions or other types of partnerships but not marriage, 14% were undecided and 8% were opposed to all recognition for same-sex couples. A Pew Research Center poll conducted between February and May 2023 showed that 67% of Argentines supported same-sex marriage, 26% were opposed and 7% did not know or had refused to answer. When divided by age, support was highest among 18–34-year-olds at 75% and lowest among those aged 35 and above at 62%. Women (73%) were also more likely to support same-sex marriage than men (60%). The 2023 Latinobarómetro showed that support had increased to 73%, while 24% were opposed and 3% were undecided or had refused to answer.

Notes

References

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