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OT(?) Brazil Supreme Court awards gay couples new rights
Brazil Supreme Court awards gay couples new rights
Friday, 06 May 2011 13:44
The decision was approved by 10-0 with one abstention.Brazil’s Supreme Court has voted overwhelmingly in favour of allowing same-sex couples the same legal rights as married heterosexuals.
The ruling will give gay couples in “stable” partnerships the same financial and social rights enjoyed by those in heterosexual relationships.
Brazil is the world’s most populous Roman Catholic nation and has an estimated 60,000 gay couples.
The ruling makes Brazil one of very few South American nations, after Argentina and Uruguay, to allow gay unions with benefits similar to those afforded a heterosexual married couple.
“The freedom to pursue one’s own sexuality is part of an individual’s freedom of expression,” said Justice Carlos Ayres Britto, the author of the ruling.
Gay activists welcomed the decision, saying it marked an “historic day” for the country.
“The degree of civilisation of a country can be measured by the way people in a nation treat their homosexual community,” Claudio Nascimento, head of Rio de Janeiro state’s Gay, Lesbian and Transsexuals Committee said, according to O Globo.
From now on same sex couples will be able to register their civil partnerships with solicitors and public bodies, giving them proper inheritance and pension rights.
However, the landmark ruling stops short of recognising gay marriage, which could involve public or religious ceremonies.
Brazil’s Roman Catholic Church had argued against the decision to allow civil unions, saying the only union referred to within Brazil’s constitution was that between a man and a woman.
But the country’s recently elected President Dilma Roussef has made the issue one of her big social policy reforms.
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6 Replies
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Quote:Brazil Supreme Court awards gay couples new rights
And how is this ruling in Brazil of use to the transsexual community there?
And how can it be of use here in Australia?Jenifur Charne
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Well. If you are a pre-op transgender who for whatever reason will remain so, you will not be officially recognised as a person of the gender you identify with. So, if you are in a relationship with someone who is “technically” the same gender, you will have the same rights as a person who can actually fulfill the requirements of officialdom.
Not every transgender person will get to the point of being “officially” recognised in the gender they identify with. It is on this level that we become on par with the gay community.
That is the irony of the current laws. A pre-op transwoman can have an officially recognised relationship with a natal woman (a lesbian relationship). Yet she cannot be in an officially recognised relationship with a male. Go figure.
It would do away with another barrier we have to having a “normal” relationship. It should be the same here. Things are changing, just not quick enough.
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The reason I went to the trouble to post this news clip is as follows:
It shows a trend by Countries Governments around the world that are reconising same sex relationships, something that the Australian Government currently does not do. As you know Transgender people can be hetro or gay or bi just like anyone else.
Because of the Australian Governments attitude if an Australian Citizen trans person was married in Australia before transitioning (Sexual Reassignment Surgery) they cannot change their official registered sex if they remain married after surgery – because it would then be a classified a same sex relationship. The only way the registration can be changed for the married trans person is to dissolve the marriage and loose all legal rights that a marriage involves.
For those main points I felt that showing the trend around the world to give a legal status to same sex couples was somewhat relevant to post here.
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Thanks for that Bambi and Portia.
When I read the article posted by Bambi, all I could see was more rights for gays, in Brazil and not Australia, and could not see how such could apply to trans in Brazil, much less here.Jenifur Charne
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Just in addition to that we live in a first world society where religion is separated form state , as catholisim is entrenched in second world brazil and such can be achieved there then realy there is no excuse here !
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Quote:Just in addition to that we live in a first world society where religion is separated form state , as catholisim is entrenched in second world brazil and such can be achieved there then realy there is no excuse here !Actually we are streets ahead of Brazil in this respect. Our “equal rights” for hetero and gay coouples are entrenched in Statute Law for superannuation, welfare and taxation (rather than simply a judges ruling or what we would call Common Law). And have been for several years now. Married or de facto, same sex or opposite sex makes virtually no difference to your legal and financial rights here. (Unless you’re a soldier.)
“Marriage” is probably the last bastion of the social right (both major parties unfortunately). So the snow-ball is gathering momentum. I’m not holding my breath but recognition of same sex unions as marriage will come, eventually.
