{"id":12125,"date":"2011-05-09T12:00:17","date_gmt":"2011-05-09T11:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=12125"},"modified":"2011-05-06T18:45:12","modified_gmt":"2011-05-06T17:45:12","slug":"brazil-supreme-court-awards-gay-couples-new-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2011\/05\/brazil-supreme-court-awards-gay-couples-new-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazil Supreme Court Awards Gay Couples New Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

5 May, 2011<\/em> – Brazil’s Supreme Court has voted overwhelmingly in favour of allowing same-sex couples the same legal rights as married heterosexuals.<\/p>\n

The decision was approved by 10-0 with one abstention.<\/p>\n

The ruling will give gay couples in “stable” partnerships the same financial and social rights enjoyed by those in heterosexual relationships.<\/p>\n

Brazil is the world’s most populous Roman Catholic nation and has an estimated 60,000 gay couples.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

Gay activists welcomed the decision, saying it marked an “historic day” for the country.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

However, the landmark ruling stops short of recognising gay marriage, which could involve public or religious ceremonies.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But the country’s recently elected President Dilma Rousseff has made the issue one of her big social policy reforms.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

5 May, 2011 – Brazil’s Supreme Court has voted overwhelmingly in favour of allowing same-sex couples the same legal rights as married heterosexuals. The decision was approved by 10-0 with one abstention. The ruling will give gay couples in “stable” partnerships the same financial and social rights enjoyed by those in heterosexual relationships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sexualities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12125\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}