RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Constitution Committee of the Chilean Chamber of Deputies has approved the bill allowing same sex marriage in the country, another step towards the initiative’s approval.
With ten votes in favor, the bill has received the green light and will now pass to the Finance Committee before advancing to the plenary of the Lower House for its third constitutional procedure.
Read also: Check out our coverage on Chile
During the last day of discussion of the bill, the deputies of the commission have addressed the filiation of the children of same-sex marriages, while the duties of the parents with the children and the order of the surnames have also been discussed, reports ‘La Tercera’.
The initiative, to which President Sebastián Piñera gave urgency, had already been approved in general by this commission, after the Senate approved the bill in particular in July, the first constitutional procedure that this initiative has had since it was taken to Congress.
The bill contemplates eliminating the distinction between man and woman as the only components of marriage. At the same time, it also replaces “progenitors” with “parents” instead of father and mother in the case of filiation, thus allowing same-sex couples to appear as parents. This new legislation also recognizes marriages between two persons of the same sex formalized abroad.