A trial judge made an eleventh-hour decision to halt Argentina’s first impending same-sex “marriage” that was due to happen Tuesday in Buenos Aires in conjunction with “World AIDS Day.” The ruling prevents the city’s registrar from giving the homosexual couple a marriage license, but the legal battle is far from over and will likely make its way to the Argentine Supreme Court.
Judge Marta Gomez Alsina filed an injunction on the eve of the ceremony that prevents – but does not invalidate – the earlier ruling of another trial court judge from going into effect. That judge decided that the capital city’s prohibitions on same-sex “marriage” violated Argentina’s constitution.
Judge Gabriela Seijas issued the original Nov. 10 ruling that homosexuals Alex Freyre and Jose Maria di Bello had a legal right to contract a same-sex “marriage” in Buenos Aires.
Seijas declared that two articles in the city’s civil code stood in violation of the constitution, since they expressed that only members of the opposite sex can marry each other.
“The law should treat everyone with the same respect according to their singularities, without the need to understand or regulate them,” the judge said in her ruling.
Seijas’ order applied only to the city of Buenos Aires, which legalized civil unions for homosexuals in 2002, and not to the rest of Argentina, where same-sex civil unions are legal in only three other jurisdictions and banned in the rest of the provinces.
Homosexual activists have tried to overturn Argentine laws that preserve the natural definition and meaning of marriage by sending homosexual couples into the provinces with fanfare in order to produce a “test case” that, with enough publicity, could make it onto the docket of the country’s Supreme Court and circumvent the democratic process.
Last year an Argentine judge in Rosario rebuffed the request of Martín Peretti Scioli and Oscar Marvich to “marry” each other, citing the restrictions existing in provincial law. Both homosexuals came prepared for publicity, surrounded by an entourage of Argentine politicians and celebrities, along with a notary, who officially registered the judge’s decision.
Judge Alsina’s injunction means Argentina’s appellate courts will now have to resolve the dispute over the capital’s prohibition of same-sex “marriage” in the civil code. The case will likely make its way to the Argentine Supreme Court.
Homosexual activists believe that a decision in their favor would not only have ramifications for the entire country’s marriage laws, but also have a ripple effect on other Latin American nations given Argentina’s status and influence in the region.