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ARGENTINA: The 'Final Battle' for Gay and Lesbian Rights
By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Aug 26 (IPS) - By drawing the media spotlight to five-year-old
twins Lucas and Julia and their two "daddies", the Argentine gay and lesbian
community is gearing up to fight for the passage of a bill in Congress that
would not only legalise same-sex civil unions, but grant these couples the
inheritance and adoption rights normally limited to marriage.
The bill will be introduced in the Argentine Congress in September. If it is
passed into law, Argentina will become the first country in Latin America to
legally recognise homosexual couples nationwide.
Same-sex civil unions are currently authorised in the city of Buenos Aires,
but these partnerships do not include the right for one spouse to
automatically inherit from the other, nor do they permit adopting children
as a couple.
The civil union bill, which is backed by numerous jurists, is considered to
be more progressive than the same-sex marriage law adopted in Spain last
June. Instead of merely expanding the legal concept of marriage to include
same-sex couples, the proposed legislation would establish a new, more open
institution that some heterosexual couples may choose to opt for as well.
The marriage law currently in force in Argentina contains over 300 articles
regulating this legal institution, while the civil union draft law contains
less than 160, because it has been designed as an institution that more
fully respects the right of every couple to voluntarily adopt its own
decisions, explained Marcelo Suntheim, secretary of the Argentine Homosexual
Community (CHA).
Essentially, civil unions will allow couples to enjoy all of the benefits of
marriage without being subjected to all of its rules, Suntheim commented in
an interview with IPS.
For example, he noted, "In a civil union, adultery doesn't exist, because
faithfulness is not an obligation." In order to dissolve the union, all that
is required is for one of the partners to declare their wish to do so to the
civil registry.
In order to gauge the public's reaction to the bill soon to be discussed in
Congress, the CHA convinced Martín Farach and Andrew Colton, a gay couple,
to appear before the media with their five-year-old twins, Lucas and Julia.
"We're just a regular, boring family like any other," maintained Farach, an
Argentine who moved abroad with his family after the military coup led by
General Juan Carlos Onganía in 1966.
Farach met Colton, who is from the United States, 19 years ago. They got
married in Canada, and divide their time between living in the United States
and Argentina. They are now thinking of settling in Buenos Aires
permanently, however, because life "has become unbearable" in the United
States since George W. Bush arrived at the White House, they said.
They became fathers five years ago with the help of a female friend, who was
impregnated with sperm provided by one of them.
"Our families have to be made more visible, because otherwise we will just
be engaging in abstract discussions," said Suntheim.
He stressed that there are hundreds of gay and lesbian couples who have been
raising children together for many years in Argentina, but the issue has
been kept relatively hidden until now.
The strategy of presenting the Farach-Colton family to the media, and
therefore to the public, was aimed at highlighting "family diversity" and
raising awareness before the bill is submitted to Congress.
There are many lesbian couples who are raising children born to one of the
partners during a prior heterosexual relationship. Other lesbian couples
turn to donated sperm and artificial insemination as a means of having a
baby together.
At the same time, Argentine law allows single men and women to adopt
children, and the authorities have even permitted adoption by individuals
who are members of a same-sex couple who have not attempted to hide this
fact.
"It's not that we can't have children. The problem is that these children
don't have the same rights as others. If the legal parent dies, the children
could end up in an orphanage, even though they have another parent,"
stressed Suntheim.
Same-sex couples also confront inequality when one of them dies. It is
almost impossible for the surviving partner to collect the pension of his or
her deceased "spouse", and only on rare occasions does the law recognise
same-sex partners as automatic heirs to the estate of the other member of
the couple, as is the case with legally married couples in Argentina.
The civil union draft law seeks to fill this legal void, and even offers
alternatives. It contemplates the right to collect a deceased partner's
pension, and with regard to inheritance, couples can either choose to have
the surviving partner automatically declared the sole heir, or opt for a
prior mutual agreement on the disposition of the estate of the deceased
spouse.
Suntheim believes that even many heterosexual couples will choose this more
open form of legal union, with fewer rules and regulations than conventional
marriage.
In the 1990s, the efforts of the Argentine gay and lesbian community focused
on fighting discrimination, but today they are working to demand full
respect for their civil rights.
Their first victory came in 2003, with the legalisation of same-sex civil
unions in Buenos Aires, the first and still the only city in Latin America
to grant this right.
Around 350 same-sex couples have officially entered into civil unions since
this municipal regulation was approved on May 20, 2003, but these couples do
not have the right to adopt children or to automatically inherit from a
deceased "spouse", since matters like these can only be addressed by federal
law.
In October 2004, in preparation for the coming debate on the same-sex civil
union bill, psychologist and CHA health issues coordinator Jorge Raíces
Montero presented the Congress with a book on the subject of same-sex
adoption, with contributions from 24 specialists in fields ranging from
psychoanalysis to family law to gender studies.
At the time of the book's release, Raíces Montero told IPS that there was
overwhelming evidence that children raised by same-sex couples were "just as
well-balanced psychologically as children in any traditional family."
While all children have certain needs that are met by functions which
society has classified as "maternal" and "paternal", these functions are not
necessarily tied to any given gender or sexual orientation, and both roles
can in fact be fulfilled by the same person, or shared between two people of
the same sex, he explained.
After the controversy sparked by the release of Raíces Montero's book last
year and the media campaign focusing on the Farach-Colton family this year,
the CHA is preparing for the final battle: the adoption of a same-sex civil
union law that would be in force throughout the country and include full
rights to inheritance and adoption.
The association is expecting a repeat of the heated debate unleashed by the
authorisation of same-sex civil unions in Buenos Aires, including the fierce
opposition put forward by conservative right-wing groups and the Catholic
Church.
A preview of what is to come was provided by the media coverage of the
Farach-Colton family. The conservative daily newspaper La Nación not only
published a profile of the family, but also quoted experts who stressed that
what is important is the fulfilment of maternal and paternal functions, and
not the gender of the person fulfilling them, thus tacitly endorsing
adoption by same-sex couples.
The civil union bill was drafted by Judge Graciela Medina, who also drew up
the initiative adopted by the city of Buenos Aires. The CHA has asked a
dozen jurists to study and revise the bill, and the final text is almost
ready. "We know it is going to be challenged, so we want it to be solid,"
said Suntheim.
(END/2005)
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