The first marriages between same-sex couples were celebrated today, in the presence of government officials and people from civil society
Jaime and Javier have become the first same-sex couple to get married in Chile. Minutes later, it was the turn of Pabla and Consuelo, the second couple who got married this Thursday morning.
The first same-sex marriage in Chile’s history was celebrated this morning at the Civil Registry office in Providencia, Santiago, in the presence of government officials and people from civil society.
Justice and Human Rights Minister Hernán Larraín, Social Development Minister Karla Rubilar, Human Rights Undersecretary Lorena Recabarren, Civil Registry Director Sergio Mierzejewski, and representatives from Fundación Iguales and MOVILH attended the ceremony.
When the clock struck 7.20 am, the ceremony got under way to make Jaime and Javier the first same-sex couple to get married in Chile. Minutes later, it was the turn of Pabla and Consuelo, the second couple who got married this morning.
At the end of the ceremony, Minister Larraín said, “this was an initiative presented by President Bachelet with strong civil society support, represented mainly by Fundación Iguales and MOVILH. President Sebastián Piñera finished by pushing very hard for the initiative. Because of this, a new page has today been written in Chile’s history: the law that enshrines same-sex marriage in our legislation has come into force. From today and henceforth, marriages will always be between two people, whoever they may be, and that is why this is a very important day.”
Undersecretary Recabarren added, “today equality and non-discrimination have triumphed, where families are all the same. Therefore, the value of marriage as the fundamental social nucleus is strengthened, as all types of families are now included. Today, we can all celebrate that we are a fairer country, that we are a country in which people’s freedom and equality is something that has really become concrete.”
Civil Registry Director Sergio Mierzejewski said, “we doubled our efforts to implement this law, and we are very happy to be here today at this historic moment. I want to thank all the officials, especially the civil officials, who will begin to work from today in another system that allows marriage to be for everyone. To make things easier for citizens, so that people don’t have to go to the offices to make an appointment, you can now reserve your appointment through the web portal. Ten same-sex marriages are scheduled throughout the country today. We will be constantly monitoring the schedule to add more hours if necessary.”
In order to allow the first same-sex marriages, the Civil Registry had to modify the Marriage License, Certificates and Booklet. From now, they will no longer use the terms “husband” and “wife”, replacing them with the word “spouses”, and change the words “man” and “woman” for “people”. To meet marriage requirements, the Civil Registry has increased the available appointments by 3,000 in the 149 offices throughout the country.