Three gay men marry as Colombia gets its first recognised polyamorous family
Three gay men in Colombia have married each other.
The men have been legally recognised as the first ‘polyamorous family’ in the country.
Actor Victor Hugo Prada and his two partners, journalist Manuel Jose Bermudez and sports instructor John Alejandro Rodriguez, signed the legal documents earlier this month.
These documents establish them as a family with inheritance rights in the eyes of the law.
Lawyer and gay rights activist German Rincon Perfetti has said that there are many polyamorous families in Colombia.
However, this is the first to be recognised in the eyes of the law.
“It is a recognition that other types of family exist,” Perfetti told Agence France-Presse.
Colombia became the fourth South American country to legalise same-sex marriage when it passed the law in April last year.
Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay had all already taken the step earlier this decade.
Colombia has been fairly progressive in recent years in regard to its LGBT policies.
In November 2015, Colombia’s highest court lifted its ban on same-sex couples adopting children.
And the country also adopted a new gender recognition law in 2015 that allows trans people to gain legal recognition without the need to undergo surgery or see a psychiatrist.
In 2011, it was made legal for same-sex couples to enter into civil unions, in an attempt to tackle anti-LGBT discrimination.
While in a civil union, same-sex couples were entitled to pension and health benefits and to set up inheritance payments for their partner – but it was not legally recognised as a marriage.
Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos and his government made same-sex marriage legal in the face of opposition from the influential Catholic Church.
