Staff and wire reports

Uruguay became the first country in Latin America to legalize civil unions nationwide for gay and lesbian couples Dec. 27 when President Tabare Vazquez signed a law passed by the country’s Congress in December.

Under the law, gay and lesbian couples in the South American country of 3.6 million people have the same rights as married heterosexual couples, including Social Security, pension, inheritance and parenting rights. Couples would have to live together five years before registering their union.

Mauricio Coitiño, of Colectivo Ovejas Negras, a gay advocacy group in Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo, said the measure brings the country closer to the equality promised in its constitution.

“A democratic society cannot have people of first and second categories,” he said. “Here it is not an issue if society is ready or not. We live in a society with a constitution that recognizes equal rights for all citizens, without exclusions.”

Supporters of the law hedged their celebration by saying they would continue to work for full marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples.

Gay and lesbian civil unions are legal in two states in Mexico—the Federal District (Mexico City) and Coahuila—and in two states in Argentina, including Buenos Aires. Rio Grande do Sul, a Brazilian state that borders Uruguay, also passed a civil unions law in 2004. Other jurisdictions in Latin America, most notably in Brazil and Colombia, have also taken steps toward recognition of gay and lesbian couples.