Ganan derechos parejas gays en Colombia

La Suprema Corte de Colombia resolvió una controversia constitucional a favor de las parejas del mismo sexo informa la BBC. La igualdad y la libertad siguen avanzando en el mundo...

Campaigner Marcela Sanchez said it was 'a great step'

Homosexual couples in Colombia should have the same property rights as their heterosexual counterparts, the nation's Constitutional Court has ruled.

The decision applies to those who have been living together for two years.

A gay rights group, which had sought the clarification from the court, said at least 100,000 couples would benefit.

A court source said it did not mean same-sex civil unions - which are part of a bill currently being debated in Congress - had been approved.

'Great step'

The court said the expression "men and women" used in a 1990 law which gives property rights to de-facto couples was unconstitutional.

The head of gay rights group Colombia Diversa, Marcela Sánchez, described the ruling as "a great step".

Until now, same-sex couples who wanted to share their property had had to create commercial partnerships to guarantee that in the case of death of one of the partners the shared possessions would go to the surviving one, she said.

"Laws are not enough, an important cultural shift is needed... for discrimination to end," Ms Sanchez added.

Wednesday's ruling was condemned by some lay Catholic groups, which described it as "going against the family and matrimony".

La derecha católica colombiana sin embargo muestra su ignorancia. Carlos Corsi, de Laicos por Colombia dice: "Con el fallo borra la diferencia entre hombre y mujer. Ahora hay un nuevo estado civil, el gay. Tiene consecuencias muy serias". El señor acaso no de cuenta que el estado civil es casado o soltero? No es muy obvio que gay es solo una orientación sexual, y que la pueden tener hombres o mujeres? No conozco un estado civil que se llame "mujer" u "hombre" para el caso, pero bueno, la intolerencia raramente usa buenos argumentos...

El diario El Tiempo explica bien el fallo de la corte, el debate y presenta las reacciones de la ciudadanía colombiana.