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| Brazil Supreme Court awards gay couples new rights | Brazil Supreme Court awards gay couples new rights |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| Brazil's Supreme Court has voted overwhelmingly in favour of allowing same-sex couples the same legal rights as married heterosexuals. | Brazil's Supreme Court has voted overwhelmingly in favour of allowing same-sex couples the same legal rights as married heterosexuals. |
| The decision was approved by 10-0 with one abstention. | The decision was approved by 10-0 with one abstention. |
| The ruling will give gay couples in "stable" partnerships the same financial and social rights enjoyed by those in heterosexual relationships. | The ruling will give gay couples in "stable" partnerships the same financial and social rights enjoyed by those in heterosexual relationships. |
| Brazil is the world's most populous Roman Catholic nation and has an estimated 60,000 gay couples. | Brazil is the world's most populous Roman Catholic nation and has an estimated 60,000 gay couples. |
| The ruling makes Brazil one of very few South American nations, after Argentina and Uruguay, to allow gay unions with benefits similar to those afforded a heterosexual married couple. | |
| "The freedom to pursue one's own sexuality is part of an individual's freedom of expression," said Justice Carlos Ayres Britto, the author of the ruling. | |
| Gay activists welcomed the decision, saying it marked an "historic day" for the country. | |
| "The degree of civilisation of a country can be measured by the way people in a nation treat their homosexual community," Claudio Nascimento, head of Rio de Janeiro state's Gay, Lesbian and Transsexuals Committee said, according to O Globo. | |
| From now on same sex couples will be able to register their civil partnerships with solicitors and public bodies, giving them proper inheritance and pension rights. | |
| However, the landmark ruling stops short of recognising gay marriage, which could involve public or religious ceremonies. | |
| Brazil's Roman Catholic Church had argued against the decision to allow civil unions, saying the only union referred to within Brazil's constitution was that between a man and a woman. | |
| But the country's recently elected President Dilma Roussef has made the issue one of her big social policy reforms. |