Chile Passes Marriage Equality Legislation

Congratulations to Chile! The country becomes the 31st country in the world to legalize same-gender marriage after passing marriage equality by a wide margin. President Sebastián Piñera is expected to sign it into law quickly, the new law also updating some existing ones to include LGBTQ couples and remove other restrictions.

Before the change, Chile allowed couples to form civil unions, which provided some protections but didn’t include parentage and adoption rights. The new law removes those restrictions around same-gender couples and parentage, adoption rights, and assisted reproduction. It also removes a previous requirement saying trans people must get divorced before having their gender legally recognized.

The move comes after years of fighting by Chilean activists. Back in 2012, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights found Chile violated the rights of a mother who lost legal custody of her children for living with them and her same-gender partner.

This was the first time the regional court held that the American Convention on Human Rights does not allow for discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Ultimately, the ruling required Chile to uphold the mother’s parental rights and the rights of the children to not experience discrimination based on their parents’ sexual orientation and gender.

A 2015 civil union law then allowed same-gender (and different-gender) couples to enter civil unions, but they did not provide equal rights.

In 2017, former President Michelle Bachelet submitted a marriage equality bill to the Chilean Congress, after signing a settlement with activists who petitioned the Inter-American Commission on Human rights, demanding the country provide marriage equality.

After four years of legislative work and political maneuvering, the legislature approved and amended version of Bachelet’s bill.

Chile joins countries like Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Uruguay, which have already enacted marriage equality. In Mexico, 24 states allow same-gender marriages, but in the other eight, couples need a court order to marry.