CHILE: Chilean gay rights activists call for equal marriage rights during Valentine's Day protest after being denied marriage license

Record ID: 277657

  • Title: CHILE: Chilean gay rights activists call for equal marriage rights during Valentine's Day protest after being denied marriage license
  • Date: 15th February 2012
  • Summary: GENERAL VIEW OF MEMBERS OF THE MOVEMENT FOR SEXUAL DIVERSITY
  • Embargoed: 1st March 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Chile, Chile
  • Country: Chile
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAEU7MCYO6WJ6COT2ZE304S630I
  • Story Text: Gay rights activists in Chile marked Valentine's Day with a demonstration demanding equal marriage rights on Tuesday (February 14) for all Chileans.
    The demonstration began as a gay couple walked into a Santiago civil registrar's office asking for a marriage license.
    In total, four same-sex couples asked for and were denied their request for a marriage license as part of Tuesday's demonstration.
    When the requests were refused, members of the Chilean gay rights group, the Movement for Sexual Diversity, held a demonstration at the government building.
    The leader of the LGBT rights group, Fernando Munoz, called for Chilean law, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman, to be changed allowing all couples the right to wed.
    Demonstrators said Valentine's Day, when people "celebrate love," was the perfect chance to remind Chileans that not everyone in the South American country is granted the same rights to express "that love".
    "We are disadvantaged under Chilean law. It makes us second class citizens. That is why we are going to continue this struggle and our work because there is no doubt all couples have to be equal. All couples should have the same rights because in the end we all love the same way. That is why we say there are different kinds of love, but all love should have the same rights," Munoz said.
    The gay rights activist said the South American country has not done enough in granting the LGBT community equal rights since emerging from a brutal dictatorship when then dictator Augusto Pinochet relinquished power to a democratically elected president in 1990.
    "In 22 years of democracy we have hardly gotten anything and now it is time for the legislators, the political parties [and] the executive branch to take charge of this issue and not just delay it over and over again like they've done during the past 22 years of democracy. So, if this is the democracy we get, it does nothing for us because it leaves us out."
    Only one Latin American country, Argentina, grants same-sex couples full marriage rights. Gay marriage is also allowed in Mexico City and the Brazilian state of Alagoas. Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Uruguay allow civil unions.
    No law is currently under consideration in Chile to allow same-sex unions.
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