Argentine judge blocks gay marriage

  
A November 13 ruling by Judge Gabriela Seijas ordered the civil registry to make official the marriage of Alejandro Freyre, 39, and Jose Maria Di Bello, 41, who had been denied their request because they were both men.
  
This had been due to happen on Tuesday, but in a last-minute ruling a second judge put the ceremony at the Beruti registry office in the Palermo district of Buenos Aires indefinitely on hold.
  
"I have decided to suspend provisionally the ceremony set for Tuesday December 1, 2009 at 1400... pending resolution of an appeal," by the Supreme Court, Judge Martha Gomez Alsina said.
  
She stressed that there was no discrimination involved and that same-sex couples here do have the right to celebrate civil unions.
  
Freyre and Di Bello had already been denied in an earlier attempt to marry because they were both men, prompting them to file the successful November appeal.
  
"We are very happy, moved, but we also feel the heavy weight of responsibility because it's not just about us, it's encouraging legal equality in Argentina and the rest of Latin America," Di Bello told AFP after that decision.
  
Gay rights activists vowed to go ahead as planned to the registry office and lead a protest instead.
  
Esteban Paulon of the Argentine GBLT (Gay, Bisexual, Lesbian, or Transgender) Federation said "despite its being called off, we will be at the civil registration office at the time the marriage was set for to protest."
  
He said activists would press for legislation this year changing the wording of marriage-related rules from "man and wife" to "the contracting parties."
  
Buenos Aires, known for its active if low-key gay movement, became the region's first city to approve civil unions for gay couples in 2002, granting them some but not all the rights enjoyed by heterosexual married couples.
  
In the rest of Latin America, Mexico City, the Mexican state of Coahuila and the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul also allow civil unions for same-sex couples.
  
Uruguay became the first country in the region in late 2007 to legalize civil unions for gays. In January 2009, the Colombian Constitutional Court recognized a series of rights for homosexual couples, including social welfare rights.
  
But no Latin American country authorizes marriage between gays.