After a heated 14-hour session, Argentina's Senate voted 33-27 with three abstentions in the early morning of July 15 to approve a bill extending the right to marry and to adopt to same-sex couples. The Senate vote completed the approval process for the measure, which the Chamber of Deputies had passed on May 5. Argentina is now the first country in Latin America to extend full marriage equality to same-sex couples.

Hundreds of activists held a vigil in the Plaza de los Dos Congresos during the session despite a winter cold wave. They applauded, hugged and cried when they heard the result; the celebration continued until dawn. "To start the day like this is really delightful for our couples," said César Cigliutti, president of the Argentina Homosexual Community (CHA), noting that the Catholic hierarchy's fierce opposition to the measure had turned out to be a "bad strategy." (Clarín, Buenos Aires, July 15)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, July 18.

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