Sebastián Piñera promulgates an equal marriage law: “It is a step towards a fairer country”

The president of Chile, Sebastian Piñera, promulgated this Thursday the law that allows marriage between people of the same sex approved this week, described as a “historic” step in the conquest of social rights and celebrated across the country.

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“This is a day to celebrate, it is a historic day. This law means a step forward towards a freer, more tolerant and just society, “said the president from La Moneda, seat of government.

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With this rule, he added, all people will be able to “live love, get married and start a family with all the legal protection they need and deserve.”

Congress gave the green light, last Tuesday, to a bill that had been under discussion for more than four years that allows two people of the same sex to marry and that guarantees their filiative rights, that is, the legal recognition of children in common. .

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With this decision, Chile became the eighth country in Latin America to approve this right after Costa Rica, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay and several states of Mexico.

“My look in the past was different,” Piñera acknowledged, “but, just as it is important to act with conviction, it is also important to be able to evolve and develop new perspectives.”

In a surprising turn of events, the president said last June that “the time had come” to approve this regulation, originally promoted by former Socialist President Michelle Bachelet (2014-2018), and instructed Parliament to discuss it urgently.

In six months, Congress passed the regulation, which this week obtained broad support in both chambers with the resounding support of the opposition (left) and the more moderate sectors of the ruling party (center-right).

The president also thanked the role played by the LGTBI platforms, which this year have pushed to achieve its approval despite the reluctance of the most conservative parliamentarians who managed to prolong the discussion as long as possible.

These organizations ensured that aspects such as eliminating homosexuality as a cause of wrongful divorce were included, recognizing unions contracted abroad or defining the order of the children’s surnames.

“This is a radical change that opens equality to all families, improving their quality of life,” said Gonzalo Velásquez, president of the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh), one of the most active sex-diversity organizations in the country.

Until now and since 2015, homosexual people could only unite under the legal figure of the Civil Union Agreement (AUC), which does not recognize filiative rights.

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Deshawn