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| Colombia's highest court paves way for marriage equality in surprise ruling | Colombia's highest court paves way for marriage equality in surprise ruling |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Colombia’s highest court has given the green light for gay marriage in the conservative, mostly Catholic country. | Colombia’s highest court has given the green light for gay marriage in the conservative, mostly Catholic country. |
| The magistrates of the constitutional court voted six to three against a proposed ruling that said marriage only applied to unions between men and women and that it was up to the congress and not the court to decide on same-sex marriage. | The magistrates of the constitutional court voted six to three against a proposed ruling that said marriage only applied to unions between men and women and that it was up to the congress and not the court to decide on same-sex marriage. |
| “All human beings … have the fundamental right to be married with no discrimination,” argued magistrate Alberto Rojas who voted against the proposed ruling and will now write up the majority decision making gay marriage legal. | |
| With the ruling Colombia is set to become the fourth Latin American country to fully allow same-sex marriage, after Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Mexico City and several Mexican states have also passed regulations allowing gay marriage and that country’s high court ruled that the unions had to be recognized nationwide. | |
| Related: Colombia: the next battleground in the global fight for marriage equality | Related: Colombia: the next battleground in the global fight for marriage equality |
| A 2011 constitutional court ruling recognized same-sex couples as families and ordered the congress to pass a law that would afford gay couples the same rights as in a heterosexual marriage. If lawmakers failed to pass a law by June 2013, by default gay couples could “formalise” their unions before notaries and judges. | |
| But the court’s language was vague, and left many gay couples in limbo. Many were told that they could not be married but they could enter into a “solemn contract”. | But the court’s language was vague, and left many gay couples in limbo. Many were told that they could not be married but they could enter into a “solemn contract”. |
| “We are super happy,” said Luis Felipe Rodríguez, a gay rights activist in Cali who challenged the court’s 2011 ruling. “This is a victory against all the conservative political parties, against the Catholic church and everyone who tried to block our rights.” | |
| “This decision tells all those conservatives that equality is unstoppable,” he said. | “This decision tells all those conservatives that equality is unstoppable,” he said. |
| Rodríguez said the ruling came as something of a surprise because the court had postponed the debate on the issue of gay marriage eight times since August 2015. | Rodríguez said the ruling came as something of a surprise because the court had postponed the debate on the issue of gay marriage eight times since August 2015. |
| The court had already ruled last year that gay couples can adopt children. In Thursday’s decision, the court said that notaries public and judges could not refuse to marry a same-sex couple. |