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Chilean President Begins Push For Domestic Partnerships

05/30/11-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
While the world did not end when Argentina became one of the few South American nations to legalize same-sex marriage, Chile has been reluctant to follow suit. Still, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has said that he wants Congress to legalize a certain amount of civil unions in that nation in order to “regulate and protect” the rights of more than two million unmarried couples in that nation, which include a large number of lesbian and gay couples.

Pinera has stressed that the proposal will not make way for same-sex marriages in the nation, and said that his belief that “marriage in its essence and nature is between a man and a woman” remains unchanged. However, he did campaign on domestic partnerships, but not all within his conservative coalition can be too happy with it.

According to Pink News:

What the proposed bill will do is “protect and safeguard” the civil rights of couples who for whatever reason, remain unmarried, while at the same time “safeguarding the dignity of those couples, whether of the opposite or even the same sex,” he said to El Mercurio newspaper.

…

The Catholic Church, which carries great power and influence in Chile, has said it will not recognise the “aberration” of gay marriage.

It should be noted that civil unions and domestic partnerships actually undermine marriage more than they bolster them because they reduce the status that marriage has by making an exclusive club while also giving those straight couples who would prefer not to go through all of the expenses of a full on marriage a reason to want to not get marries.