Thursday, December 20, 2012

BRAZIL: Sao Paulo State Legalizes Gay Marriage

I have noted before how the United States - the self-advertised "land of liberty" and home of religious freedom - is increasingly looking like a theocratic Islamic state as it continues to bow to the religious bigotry of far right Christians who comprise a Christian Taliban even as other modern nations move toward marriage equality.  The Brazilian State of Sao Paulo has amended its laws to allow for same sex marriage and marriage visas will be issued to foreigners seeking to marry in Sao Paulo (pictured above), the largest city in South America.  Meanwhile in America we see bigoted asses like Justice Antonin Scalia who spout anti-gay animus as a badge of distinction.  The world is marching forward even as the Christofascists seek to drag America back to the Middle Ages.  Here are highlights from Brazilian Law Blog:

Brazil is about to see something that we only heard about from the United States: a massive movement of people going to one specific State, in order to get married there.  This is because São Paulo State (where São Paulo city is located) has updated its registration rules in order to allow the automatic registration of same sex marriages, without the need of a previous court order.

This change has followed, with some delay, a decision from the Brazilian Supreme Court regarding same sex marriage.  Therefore, foreigners who wish to marry same sex partners in Brazil will now be allowed a marriage visa, which is much easier to obtain than the civil union visa for same sex unions, which already existed.

I consider this a triumph  of law and civility. A good thing for Brazil, at last.  The link below is in Portuguese:

Folha de S.Paulo - Cotidiano - Norma do TJ obriga cartórios de SP a registrar casamento gay - 19/12/2012
The blog's author is a Brazilian lawyer who specializes in international business who has worked in Argentina, Mexico, India, England, China and Dubai, in addition to having extensive experience in Brazil.

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