BY NATASHA BARSOTTI – Chilean gay rights group Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (MOVILH) is suing the state of Chile for prohibiting same-sex marriage.
According to The Santiago Times, MOVILH presented the lawsuit to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, claiming that the South American country flouted several parts of the American Convention on Human Rights, of which it is a signatory.
“The best case scenario for us is that the commission obliges the state to allow same-sex marriage. In the worst case scenario, it would begin to pressure the state into legalizing it, which is also a good scenario for us,” MOVILH general secretary Alberto Roa told the Times. He calls the suit “unprecedented.” It comes in the wake of a 2011 Supreme Court decision that disallows three gay couples to marry, upholding decisions of the Court of Appeals and the Civil Registry. The news report notes that two of the couples got married abroad but were denied that status when they returned to Chile.
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