Gay Marriage Votes Pending in Uruguay, Colombia

Conflict between supportive populations and Catholic leadership in Latin America

The legislatures of Uruguay and Colombia will both take up marriage equality bills in the coming weeks, posing the first tests on the issue since Pope Francis became the first pontiff from Latin America.

The marriage bill in Uruguay is widely expected to pass when the country's senate votes on April 2. The legislation is backed by the ruling party, and it was passed overwhelmingly by the house of deputies in December.

With approval in sight and a substantial percentage of Uruguayans in favor of the law, the rhetoric of the country's Catholic hierarchy is growing increasingly strident. They are even invoking the apocalyptic language that Pope Francis famously used when he fought Argentina's Equal Marriage Law in 2010 when he was Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

Comments

[stan James]

AS for Pope Francis, in Argentina he called gays marrying the work of the devil. He must have been looking in a mirror.

If you think anything has changed for the better re the catholic church, your hoping for somthing that wont happen for a millenia

Gays who contribute and support the catholic church are basically buying the rope with which the church will use to hang their legal rights to be full citizens.

And cheers also for columbia - they are under their supreme court mandate to implement equal marriage rights and respecting the committment / love of gay people by June 20 2013

For all practical purposes with Ururguay, Mexico, Columbia, already parts of brazil (same sort of supreme court requirement the only significant populaton wise country in latin America to not have gayss allowed civil marriage is Communist Venezuela and Chavez appears to be all but on his deathbed

[stan James]

I should add that if you've studied Latin America - very catholic - you;ll see that the church for hundreds of years has alligned itself with power - corrupt dictators.

Now the people will finally have their say.

Its the same thing that happened during the french revolution (1789)where the people were freeing themselves from the corrupt cabal of church and state

And Denis Deiderot, a French Philosopher said: (in the typical words of someone then fighting for freedom............

Mankind will be free when the last king is strangled with the guts of the last priest.

Anyday now France btw will have its senate vote for equal marriage. the vote in the lower parliament was over a 100 vote majority for equal marriage