Colombia court backs rights for gay couples
Ruling in case on inheritance buoys activists
BOGOTÁ, Colombia -- The Colombian Constitutional Court has ruled that same-sex couples are entitled to the same inheritance rights as heterosexuals in common-law marriages, marking a step forward for gay rights in the traditionally conservative, Catholic region.
Church leaders in Colombia said yesterday they had no objection to the ruling, which came late Wednesday, as long as it does not open the door for same-sex marriage or adoption.
"This is a very important step, because it's the first time that any state entity is recognizing rights for same-sex couples here," said Virgilio Barco Isakson, president of the board of Colombia
Together with a public interest law group at the University of Los Andes, Colombia Diversa filed an antidiscrimination lawsuit last year against the restriction of common-law inheritance rights to heterosexual couples who had lived together for at least two years.
As in Massachusetts, where same-sex marriage was approved by the state's high court rather than by the Legislature, the Colombian court ruling follows four failed attempts in Colombia's congress since 1999 to promote legislation guaranteeing economic and legal benefits to gay partners.
A bill that would extend social security, health, and inheritance benefits to same-sex couples was approved by the Senate in October, and is currently before the lower house, which will debate the measure twice before voting in June. Gay-rights activists now have high hopes for the legislation, given the court's verdict that, at least in the context of inheritance rights, a "common law union" cannot be limited to a man and a woman.
The bill's high-profile boosters, including President Álvaro Uribe, say they do not favor gay marriage or adoption, but that gays should be entitled to the same economic rights as heterosexuals.
"The fact that the president supports it gave the bill a big boost; he has made the issue mainstream," said Barco, whose late father was president of Colombia in the late 1980s.
In a sign of how widely accepted the notion of economic rights for gays may be here, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church has not condemned the ruling.
In an interview yesterday, Monsignor Fabian Marulanda, secretary general of a Catholic bishops' conference of Colombia, said that giving gay couples inheritance rights "does nothing that conflicts with morality or ethics, it's just a legal matter. . . . Inheritance is a sacred right in the constitution for any citizen."
Marulanda said, however, that the church could not abide the legalization of same-sex marriage or adoption.
Discrimination and violence against lesbian, gay, and transgender people are serious problems throughout Latin America. But significant progress has been made in the past decade in promoting their legal rights, said Scott Long, director of the gay rights program at Human Rights Watch in New York.
In 1998, Brazil's Superior Tribunal of Justice awarded a gay businessman half the estate of his deceased companion. Two years later, the Brazilian government granted same-sex couples the right to inherit each other's pension and social security benefits.
But no constitutional court in Latin America had ever issued a ruling "so sweepingly affirming lesbian and gay couples' constitutional rights before this Colombian ruling," Long said. "It's a tribute to the Colombian court's progressive perspective."
Mexico City, the northern Mexican state of Coahuila, and Buenos Aires now recognize gay civil unions, as do certain localities in Brazil. Ecuador has provisions in its 1998 constitution forbidding discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Activists here hope Colombia's ruling will pave the way for other benefits enjoyed by heterosexual couples, such as the right not to testify against one's partner in a criminal case and protection from domestic violence.
Paula Ettelbrick, executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission in New York, called the ruling "a stunning development. . . . This kind of step was the beginning of all sorts of recognition for gay couples in Europe and elsewhere."
The verdict is the latest in a series of activist decisions by Colombia's constitutional court. Last year, the same court legalized abortion in certain cases and strengthened the rights of war victims under a law that granted favorable sentences to disarmed illegal militiamen.
Eight of nine magistrates voted to extend inheritance rights; the ninth abstained, saying he favored extending more rights to gays.
Marcela Sánchez, executive director of Colombia Diversa, called the ruling "a gain not only for the gay community, but for the whole country. It makes the country more inclusive, more democratic, more modern."
Daniel Bonilla, a law professor at University of Los Andes who supervised the students who drafted the lawsuit, praised the court for its commitment "to the fundamental civil rights of Colombians, especially the most vulnerable groups: gays, women, victims of violence."
