Colombia approves full adoption rights for same-sex couples

After nine hours of debate, Colombia’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday gave the go-ahead for same-sex couples to legally adopt children.

Last year, the court authorized adoption rights for gay couples in which one member is a biological parent. But this time, the court voted 6-2 to change three clauses in the law that protects infants and adolescents, ruling that all minors have a right to some type of family.

Everyone is now equal when it comes to initiating adoption papers”

President Juan Manuel Santos’ government and various NGOs have supported the new changes. But the Catholic Church, which wields considerable influence throughout mostly conservative Colombia, had come out against the measure days before the court heard arguments.

“It could stop all the government’s bills and projects related to protecting [infants and adolescents],” said Pedro Mercado, a priest who serves as secretary for state relations at Colombia’s Episcopal Conference.

Marcela Sánchez, director of the NGO Diverse Colombia – the country’s biggest LGTB rights defender – called it “a historic step.”

“As of now, homosexuality is irrelevant and everyone is equal when it comes to initiating adoption papers,” Sánchez said.

Germán Humberto Rincón Perfetti, lawyer for a lesbian couple who won last year’s court case to legally adopt one of the woman’s biological daughters, said it was “constitutionally absurd” for anti-rights activists to propose presenting the issue for a public vote.

“If this were to happen, the majority would trample over a minority in a blow against democracy,” he said.

Colombia now joins its Latin American neighbors Mexico, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil, which have similar same-sex adoption laws.

The gay community in Colombia has made small steps in recent years for civil protection, such as inheritance and health rights and sharing their partners’ pensions.

Same-sex couples can formalize their unions before a public notary but there is no national law that obligates these officials to accept their registration, and many don’t.

A bill legalizing same-sex marriage is now before Congress.

English version by Martin Delfín.

Birth record error leads to first gay marriage in Central America

Álvaro Murillo, San José (Costa Rica)

A decades-old error in Costa Rica’s civil registry has led to the first official “legalized” wedding of a gay couple in conservative Central America.

When Jazmín de los Ángeles Elizondo Arias was born in 1991, a registrar mistakenly recorded her sex as “male” in her birth record. She and her family never paid much attention to the error because they knew that Jazmín was actually a girl.

But on July 25, the mistake on her 24-year-old record allowed her to get married to her female partner, Laura Isabel Florez-Estrada Pimentel, in a civil ceremony in San Jose.

“Jaz is legally a man but biologically she is a woman. So we took advantage of this mistake,” says Laura, a chef who is Spanish-Peruvian.

The couple went public with the announcement on Wednesday after holding off until the marriage papers were officially signed and approved by authorities.

“We would search every day until finally we found out that, yes, we are married,” said Laura, who is a daughter of a former Peruvian presidential candidate.

Just two hours after the marriage was made public, the Civil Registry announced that it would correct the error and annul the marriage.

The civil ceremony was presided by Marco Castillo, one of the main advocates of same-sex unions in Costa Rica.

Even Jazmín’s national identity card states that her sex is “male” but that was never important to her until now.

“I don’t know if it was destiny or what,” she laughed. “But to me it is marvelous.”