If a gay or straight couple has been living together for at least five years, they will be allowed to enter into a civil union in Uruguay, ensuring inheritance rights, pension benefits, and shared parental rights for the couple, a Senator announced on Thursdays.
Said Senator Margarita Percovich: “With this initiative, we are recognizing rights that were unclear under the law and which judges did not know how to resolve. If there is recognition (of the partnership), it's as though it were a marriage.”
The Senate has already passed the civil union bill, and Uruguay's leftist lower house is expected to approve it.
Early last year, Uruguay erected Latin America's first monument to sexual diversity, a triangular, rose-colored granite block inscribed with the words “Honoring Diversity is Honoring Life”. Uruguay is a small South American country wedged between Brazil and Argentina.
