Buenos Aires Herald 
Argentina passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage exactly thirteen years ago, July 15, 2010, becoming the second country in the Americas and the tenth worldwide to do so.
“The same-sex marriage bill was the spearhead of a legislative agenda that embraces diversity and put Argentina at the forefront of human rights in the region and the world,” Minister of Women, Gender and Diversity Ayelén Mazzina tweeted.
The fight for the bill in Argentina started in the 90s, when LGBTIQ+ movements presented the first projects to legalize it. In 2002, civil unions for same-sex couples were legalized in Buenos Aires city — a bill presented by a movement called Argentine Homosexual Community (CHA, by its Spanish initials).
Even though civil unions provided some of the rights married couples had, they were only eligible for couples who have been living together for a certain amount of time.
In 2009, Justice Minister Aníbal Fernández said he was in favor of starting a same-sex marriage debate in Congress, stating that “many people” were demanding it. That year, a project to effectively legalize same-sex marriages was presented in the Lower House of Congress. LGBTIQ+ activists and organizations participated in the writing of the bill, which was preliminarily passed. Protests for and against it erupted all over the country.
“Let’s look to St. Joseph, Mary, and the Child to ask fervently that they defend the Argentine family at this moment,” then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio — who would go on to become Pope Francis — said at the time. “May they support, defend, and accompany us in this war of God.”
However, after a 15-hour marathon session, with 33 votes in favor, 27 against, and 3 abstentions, the Senate made it law.
Vice-presidential candidate Agustín Rossi, who as a deputy voted in favor of the bill, tweeted this Saturday that it “ended the injustice of putting limits to love.”
The bill for same-sex marriage in Argentina is called matrimonio igualitario, Spanish for “egalitarian marriage.” Other Spanish-speaking countries that fought for the law followed suit and called it the same way. As of today, eleven South American countries have passed a bill making “egalitarian marriage” legal.
Some 1,100 same-sex couples got married during the first six months of the law, and some 2,297 couples tied the knot in the first year. According to the Argentine LGBT+ Federation, no less than 20,244 equal marriages have been carried out in the country since the law was passed.
A Pew Research Center poll conducted between February and May 2023 showed that 67% of Argentines supported same-sex marriage, 20% of the respondents saying they had attended a same-sex wedding.
