BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombian lawmakers yesterday rejected a polarising bill to allow same-sex marriage in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation, as hundreds of people took to the streets to demonstrate for and against the measure.
The bill was rejected by 51 out of 102 lawmakers in the Senate – with 17 in favor. The negative vote was widely expected, given that lawmakers from the ruling coalition had made an alliance to oppose the initiative.
Several hundred people rallied in Bogota’s main colonial square as lawmakers debated the proposal to allow people of the same sex to marry. Colombians for and against the bill faced off in the Plaza Bolivar, with some critics of same-sex marriage waving banners that read: “1 man + 1 woman = marriage.” Elsewhere in Latin America, gay marriage is allowed in Argentina and Uruguay as well as Mexico City and some parts of Brazil.
In an online survey being conducted by Colombian daily El Espectador, nearly 53% of readers have supported the bill, while some 46% are opposed. About 26,000 people have participated. No margin of error was given.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has not taken a position on the measure.
Critics of the bill have voiced concerns that allowing gay couples to marry would be a blow to the “sanctity” of marriage. “Marriage as an institution, as a sacrament, implies a union between a man and a woman with the idea of procreating,” said Senator Carlos Ramiro Chavarro, a Conservative Party lawmaker.
“I respect homosexual relations … but a minority should not impose legislation because the Colombian state must legislate for the majority, and the majority want us to preserve the nuclear family,” he said.
Such comments angered Senator Armando Benedetti, who proposed the bill.
“They have always said that this project goes against nature, that it goes against the foundation of society and against God’s law,” Benedetti said on Monday.
