Friday, September 18, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: Buenos Aires Legalises Same-Sex Unions
Marcela Valente
- The homosexual community in Argentina is applauding the Buenos Aires legislature’s move Friday to legalise same-sex unions, though activists stress that the ultimate goal is for gay and lesbian couples to obtain the same legal rights as heterosexual couples.
Buenos Aires is the first municipality in Latin America to grant legal recognition to de facto unions "independent of gender or of sexual orientation", as stated in the initiative that was first presented before the municipal lawmakers 16 months ago.
The vote on the bill came in the early morning hours Friday, with 29 in favour and 10 against, after five hours of debate in the year’s final session of the City of Buenos Aires Legislature, with tensions running high between homosexual rights activists and Roman Catholic Church groups, which opposed the statute.
The Argentine Homosexual Community, promoter of the initiative, is praising the vote outcome as a big step forward. But the group’s president, César Cigluitti, noted in a conversation with IPS that it is only "a small recognition of our rights."
"For us – gays and lesbians – the goal is total equality of civil rights with respect to those of heterosexuals, which means progress must me made towards civil matrimony, adoption, and inheritance rights," stated Cigliutti, who has been an activist for the last 18 years.
The statute establishes that homosexual couples with legal residence in Buenos Aires may register, beginning in April 2003, as "unions in fact", obtaining a certificate that authorises rights that until now had been reserved to married heterosexual couples.
To qualify, gay and lesbian couples will need witnesses to testify that the pair in question has lived together at least two years.
The certificate allows couples to share medical insurance benefits and recognises basic rights, such as entry into the intensive care unit of a hospital if the partner is ill, authorisation that is only given to legally recognised couples.
Gays and lesbians will also have access to the medical information of a hospitalised partner, and will qualify for leave from work in the case of the partner’s death.
"We homosexuals are citizens when it comes time to vote, but when it comes to these human rights, we have received a different and discriminatory treatment," said Cigliutti.
The activist, who has been living with his partner for the last five years, commented that the problems faced by heterosexual de facto couples to extend medical benefits to the spouse are multiplied for homosexuals, and require an accreditation of the relationship.
"We endure all sorts of jokes and ridicule, and the paperwork for the accreditation never gets done," he said.
The new legal situation of de facto homosexual couples in Buenos Aires also represents an improvement for de facto heterosexual couples because it reduces the minimum time that the pair has to live together before obtaining recognition of their union.
The national law, which only recognises such unions among heterosexuals, only does so for couples living together at least five years. There are only certain rights that couples who have lived together fewer than five years can claim.
The certificate of "union in fact" can serve as proof of the relationship for lawsuits, such as in the division of wealth, and can be used to collect pension benefits or retirement pay when the entitled partner is too ill or elderly to do so him or herself.
The author of the bill, Graciela Medina, an attorney specialising in family law, admitted that the initiative does not entail marriage because, in her opinion, that institution should be reserved for heterosexual couples.
Medina thus opted to restrict the legal scope of the de facto unions, including heterosexual and homosexual couples alike.
She said Friday that the statute recognises "minimum rights" of homosexual couples living together, adding that similar legal initiatives are being pursued in the provincial governments of Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Mendoza.
Resistance to the measure came from lawmakers who wielded religious arguments that homosexuality "goes against human nature" or even that gays and lesbians are "ill". Others opposed the statute citing economic reasons, saying other matters were a higher priority.
But budget arguments were groundless, said Medina, because the creation of the registry of de facto unions costs far less than it would for the government to take care of the medical and welfare needs of homosexuals denied access to their companion’s medical insurance and other social benefits.
The attorney also commented that debate should not be avoided simply because the issue is not as high a priority as fighting poverty or hunger. The statute represents an easy opportunity to improve people’s lives immediately, while the other social issues are more complicated challenges.
"To recognise human rights is not to recognise some sophisticated product. Just because we are a country of the developing South and are in the middle of economic crisis does not mean we have to be inhuman," she said.
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RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: Buenos Aires Legalises Same-Sex Unions
Marcela Valente
- The homosexual community in Argentina is applauding the Buenos Aires legislature’s move Friday to legalise same-sex unions, though activists stress that the ultimate goal is for gay and lesbian couples to obtain the same legal rights as heterosexual couples.
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