Brazil Judge Approves Nation's First Gay Marriage

While most of the USA remains under the intimidation of Christianists and hate groups posing as "family values" organizations and the Follower in Chief in the White House remains willing to overlook unconstitutional religious based discrimination, one of the USA's neighbors south of the border may be moving towards leaving the USA further in the dust when it comes to equal civil rights for all citizens nationwide. As I noted previously, Brazil's Supreme Court cleared the way in May for the recognition of same-sex civil unions. Now a judge in Sao Paulo state has used that ruling as a basis to allow a gay couple to convert their civil union into a full marriage. Both Forbes and the Washington Post have coverage and John Aravosis correctly asks the question "How do you say "fierce advocate" in Portuguese?" We clearly know that the answer is NOT Barack Obama. Here are highlights from Forbes:
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A Brazilian state judge on Monday approved what the court said is the nation's first gay marriage. Sao Paulo state Judge Fernando Henrique Pinto ruled two men could convert their civil union into a full marriage. Brazil's Supreme Court cleared the way in May for the recognition of same-sex civil unions, but stopped short of approving gay marriages.
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A court statement said Pinto made the decision based on the top court's ruling on civil unions and on Brazil's constitution, which outlines how a civil union can be converted into a legal marriage.
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Benjamin Polastri, a spokesman with the Sao Paulo state Attorney General's Office, said it was not immediately clear if the ruling set a strong national precedent. Polastri also said the just-approved gay marriage was the first for South America's biggest nation.
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"The federal constitution establishes as a fundamental objective of the Federal Republic of Brazil to promote the good of everyone without bias of gender or any other form of discrimination," Bednarski wrote. "This certainly includes the choice or sexual orientation of a person."
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Luiz Mott, founder of Grupo Gay da Bahia, the oldest gay rights organization in Brazil, called the marriage a huge step for LGBT rights in the country. "Now any couple can ask for the same thing. It's a great advance," he said. In Latin America, gay marriage is legal only in Argentina and Mexico City.
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Moresi said that he knew the Sao Paulo state court's ruling could be reversed by a higher court, but that "we'll take the case to the Supreme Court if needed." Sousa told G1 that he and Moresi had been together for eight years and filed for civil union designation in May, less than two weeks after the Supreme Court ruling allowed them to do so. On June 6, they asked the state court to recognize their civil union as a marriage.