Brazil, Same Sex Marriage, and Civil Unions, Part 3 (of 4) [May 2011]

After Brazil’s highest court ruled in favor of civil unions for same sex couples, there are a many in the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender (“GLBT”) community that are happy to accept the civil unions and leave it at that.

These civil unions provide all the rights of marriage except adoption (Bear comment: What is this about us gays and the no adoption business?! Please don’t tell me straights can take care of kids better than gays! Yeah, right! This is just plain ‘ole prejudice that’s become legalized discrimination!)

But there’s a growing movement among many GLBT people that want to be legally married. Julio Moreira, president of Arco-Iris (Rainbow), stated that civil unions are “a great victory”1 for the gays of Brazil. However, he felt it was important that Congress pass a civil union law in synch with the Supreme Court’s decision that also includes adoption.

Unfortunately, a civil rights law has been stuck (translation: no progress being made) in Congress since 1995 due to the strong opposition of the Roman Catholic Church (which is the majority religion in Brazil).

Even though civil unions are suppose to be the same as marriage, there is still a difference between the gay civil unions and straight marriage, with the latter always having more rights than the former.

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Reference

1 = Despite Historic Victory, Gay Rights Struggle Far from Over (2011-05-16)
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=55661