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Jose Maria Di Bello (R) and his partner Alex Freyre may marry in Latin America's first legal gay marriage in Argentina - Source: Reuters
A last-minute court ruling cast doubt over whether two Argentine
men will be able to wed as planned in Latin America's first legal
gay marriage.
Alex Freyre and Jose Maria Di Bello were granted a marriage license
earlier this month by a Buenos Aires judge who overruled a ban on
gay marriages in the capital city, arguing that it was
unconstitutional.
The couple planned to marry at the city registry office on Tuesday,
but the eleventh-hour ruling ordered the ceremony's
suspension.
"The decision I have adopted should not be interpreted as ...
discrimination against the rights of homosexuals," Judge Marta
Gomez Alsina wrote in the ruling, saying the first judge did not
have authority to give the couple permission to wed.
But Freyre and Di Bello vowed to go to the registry office on
Tuesday and try to go ahead with the wedding. "We have a firm and
irrevocable ruling (granting us permission)," they said in a
statement.
"They've only managed to postpone it."
The city's attorney general's office said the ruling was being
reviewed but that no final decision had yet been taken on what the
next step might be.
Argentina became the first Latin American country to allow civil
unions by same-sex couples in 2002.
Civil unions in Buenos Aires and other Argentine cities grant
same-sex couples some legal marital rights, but not others such as
the right to adopt.
Elsewhere in Latin America, same-sex civil unions are allowed in
Uruguay and Mexico City.
Argentina's Roman Catholic Church criticized the initial judicial
decision to let the couple marry as reckless and urged authorities
to reconsider the ruling, but Mayor Mauricio Macri said he would
not challenge the ruling.
Gay rights groups, which are lobbying for the country to become the
first in the region to allow same-sex weddings, said the ruling was
a setback.
"One day before the wedding a second judge suspends it," said Cesar
Cigliutti, president of the Argentine Homosexual Community
group.
"What we need a concrete law, not to depend on a judge."
