Pablo Fernandez in Montevideo, Uruguay and Michael Warren in Buenos Aires reveal far-reaching effects of the law that have nothing to do with same sex marriage.
The new law, backed by the Broad Front Party (which has decisive majorities in both Uruguayan houses), was passed by Uruguay's lower house Tuesday, makes the country the second in Latin America, after Argentina, and the 12th in the world to legalize gay marriage.
The measure also clarifies rules for adoption and in-vitro fertilization, and substitutes the gender neutral "contrayentes" (contracting parties) in place of the words "marido y mujer" (husband and woman) in marriage contracts.
Other changes:
- Couples, gay or straight, can decide whose surname goes first when they name their children. (For centuries in Latin America, laws have required people to give their children two names, with the father's first.) If they can't decide, the proposed law says a "sorteo," such as the flip of a coin, in the civil registry office should decide the issue. (In neighboring Argentina, heteros must put the paternal name first and homo surnames are in alphabetical order.)
- men, as well as women, may now renounce their vows without cause. (The women-only divorce option was a stipulation of Uruguay's 1912 divorce law to equalize options for women since, at the time, men usually held most of the economic and social power in marriages
- A child registered by a single parent would that that parent's name as a first surname
- One whose parents are unknown altogether would be given "two commonly used names" selected by the civil registry office
Naming changes seemed to have caused more committee discord than extending marriage to same sex couples.
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