Chile Wants Gay marriage and also to recognize married couples in other nations

                                                                                   

Movilh offers to drop case filed with international commission as a sign of good faith while military leaders discuss improving lives of gay service members.

Gay rights groups are pushing the Chilean government for more action. Photo by Iguales Chile / Facebook

The country’s largest sexual freedom organization has indicated it will retract a case lodged at an international human rights commission should the president move toward legislating on same-sex marriage. The announcement comes as the military reveals plans for a working group on anti-discrimination and further integration of gays in the armed forces.

Last May the Movement for Integration and Homosexual Freedom (Movilh) submitted a case to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights against Chile for its refusal to recognize same-sex marriage. Submitted during the administration of President Sebastián Piñera, the group is now willing to retract its case if President Michelle Bachelet moves on the issue — in October 2013, she called for an open debate that would eventually lead to a same-sex marriage bill.

“This party informs the honorable commission and, through its intermediary, the State of Chile, that it is willing to open the process for an amicable solution with the aim of achieving the full protection of same sex families in Chile,” Movilh’s statement, obtained by La Tercera, reads.

In addition to legalizing gay marriage in Chile, Movilh wants the country to legally recognize same-sex marriages conducted in other countries. Currently Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil allow same-sex marriages while Peru, Colombia and Ecuador recognize civil unions between homosexual couples.

The Life Partner Agreement (AVP), which would legalize civil unions between same-sex couples was approved by the Senate in January and Bachelet marked it as urgent in March.

With the passing of Chile’s first anti-discrimination law and increased government support for adoption by same-sex ahead of a pro-adoption march expected to draw thousands, Chile has been making moves towards more rights and support for its LGBTQ community.

However, Movilh has made it clear it will move forward with the commission if the government does not cooperate with it through dialogue to work to change Chilean laws.

The commission has recently ruled against Chile in a separate case involved gay rights. In 2010 it ruled in favor of Judge Karen Atala, who was denied custody of her daughters after her ex-husband brought her to court on the grounds that her homosexual lifestyle jeopardized the children. In the ruling, the commission called on Chile to address damages to the family, but also to ensure equality throughout the country.

“The commission asks the court to order Chile to … adopt measures to prevent the repetition of these violations, including legislation, public policies, programs and initiatives to prohibit and eradicate discrimination based on sexual orientation in all areas of the exercise of public power, including the administration of justice,” the ruling read.

Movilh is not slated, however, to participate in another dialogue announced last week by the Armed Forces of Chile. Military leaders have said they will be discussing measures to reduce discrimination and better integrate gay service members, with representatives of different groups, but Movilh has said it would prefer to speak directly with the Armed Forces.

The Defense Ministry has agreed to set up a working group that will meet over several months, lead by Defense Sub-Secretary Marcos Robledo, with leaders of human rights groups including Jaime Parada and Luis Larraín of Fundación Iguales.

Central to the working group will be discussion over ensuring the military operates internally within legal framework of the country’s 2013 anti-discrimination law — known as the Zamudio Law after the young Daniel Zamudio killed in a homophobic hate crime in 2012. The working group will also work to deepen stipulations outlined in its selection process. While directly inquiring about an applicant’s sexual orientation was legally prohibited under Piñera, the system still allows for indirect questioning that may lead to information regarding sexuality.

“We told them that to comply with anti-discrimination laws implies that the Armed Forces are not simply not expelling a person for being gay, but that, effectively, creating conditions that will give a gay gay, lesbian or transsexual person equal opportunities to make a career, even to become Commander in Chief,” Larraín said in an interview. “According to the law, that should be possible.”

Reacting to the plan put forward by the Defense Ministry, Ignacio Urrutia of the right-wing Independent Democratic Union (UDI) party who is a member of the Defense Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, came out strongly against the further inclusion of gays in the military.

“If someone is homosexual, that is their life choice, but we will not start taking the Armed Forces lightly,” Urrutia said. “All of this is just politics in order for a win for a minority group that wants to marry, wants legal matrimony, they want this and they want that.”

Other members of the government have stood behind the plan. Secretary General Alvaro Elizalde said this is just another way Chile can prevent discrimination.

“We must not forget that there has been significant progress in everything, there have been anti-discrimination laws in our country, and therefore, it is necessary to update the statute that regulates all public institutions, which certainly includes the armed forces,” Elizalde said. “This is with respect to all forms of discrimination, not only with regard to the world of diversity, but also with regard to religious minorities, ethnic minorities or people who have some degree of disability can all play roles in various public institutions.”

By Charlotte Karrlsson-Willis (kwillis@santiagotimes.cl)
 The Santiago Times