Same-sex marriage in Uruguay

Same-sex marriage became legal in Uruguay on August 5, 2013. A bill for legalization was passed by the Chamber of Deputies on December 12, 2012 in a vote of 81–6. The Senate approved it with some minor amendments on April 2, 2013, in a 23–8 vote. The amended bill was approved by the Chamber of Deputies in a 71–21 vote on April 10 and was signed by the President on May 3, 2013. As of July 2015, Uruguay is one of eighteen countries to have legalised same-sex marriage.

On January 1, 2008, Uruguay became the first Latin American country to have a national civil union law, titled Ley de Unión Concubinaria.

The bill for legalization, proposed by Senator Margarita Percovich of the Broad Front, was passed in Chamber of Deputies on November 29, 2007 after having been passed in a similar form in the Senate in 2006. The bill was passed by both chambers in the same form on December 19, and signed into law by President Tabaré Vázquez on December 27. It came into effect on January 1, 2008. The first union was performed on April 17, 2008.

Following the approval of the bill, both same-sex and opposite-sex couples are allowed to enter into a civil union (unión concubinaria) after they have lived together for at least five years, and are entitled to most of the benefits that married couples are afforded, including social security entitlements, inheritance rights and joint ownership of goods and property.

A government-backed bill allowing same-sex couples to adopt children was discussed in the national Parliament in the spring of 2008, receiving the support of President Vázquez and fierce opposition from the Catholic Church. The bill was approved by the Chamber of Deputies on 27 August 2009 by a 40–13 vote and by the Senate on 9 September 2009 with a 17–6 vote. Thus, Uruguay became the first country in South America where same-sex couples could jointly adopt.

On May 25, 2009, Senator Percovich said if Broad Front won the national elections in October 2009 it would introduce a same-sex marriage bill. In October, the Broad Front won an absolute majority in both chambers and José Mujica, the Broad Front presidential candidate, won the presidential election on November 29, 2009. In July 2010, legislators of the ruling party Broad Front announced plans to submit a bill that would allow same-sex marriage.Michelle Suárez Bértora, first transgender attorney in Uruguay, assisted in drafting the legislation for same-sex marriage as part of her work with the LGBT rights organization “Ovejas Negras” (Black Sheep). On July 25, 2010, former President Julio María Sanguinetti of the Colorado Party declared his support for legalization of same-sex marriage. Former President and incumbent Senator Luis Alberto Lacalle of the National Party stated his opposition.

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