Chile couples' joy as first same-sex marriages held
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Loading... - Cassia Karras
- 30 Jun 2022
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Consuelo Morales Aros, 38, and her partner Pabla Heuser Amaya are overjoyed.
The two women, who have been together for 16 years, were among the first to tie the knot in Chile on Thursday after a landmark law came into effect allowing same-sex marriages.
Same-sex couples have been able to enter into civil unions in the overwhelmingly Catholic country since 2015.
But while being in a civil union meant that same-sex couples had more legal benefits than before, those benefits fell short of those afforded to married couples, especially in relation to children and their care.
Consuelo says she and Pabla are getting married for the sake of their two-year-old daughter Josefa.
"It was our dream that we both be her parents," says Consuelo, explaining that they had Josefa through reciprocal in vitro fertilisation. Consuelo supplied the egg and Pabla had the embryo implanted and carried the pregnancy.
Consuelo and Pabla have been in a relationship for 16 years and have a daughter, Josefa
But until now, only the woman who gave birth - in this case Pabla - was legally recognised as the child's biological mother.
For Consuelo, this meant that she did not have any legal say in Josefa's medical care. And if she had separated from Pabla, she would not have had any legal rights when it came to Josefa's custody or upbringing.
Getting married will allow the two women to register Josefa as not just Pabla's daughter, but also Consuelo's.
Pabla says she is thrilled that their daughter "will finally have the two mothers she deserves instead of just one".
Surprise turn
Chile's LGBT community had long pushed for the legalisation of same-sex marriages, but a bill to that effect languished in Congress for four years.
Introduced by the left-wing President Michelle Bachelet in 2017, the bill was finally pushed through by her right-wing successor, Sebastian Piñera, in December 2021 - much to the shock of some of Mr Piñera's party colleagues and the Catholic Church. Read More...
