MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean Senate approves civil union of homosexual couples

The bill applies to all types of couples and it ”allows us to recognize different family types and protect them all” said Government Secretary Alvaro Elizalde

The Chilean Senate has passed the Civil Union Agreement (AUC) bill, which legalizes the civil union between homosexual couples, making Chile the seventh country in South America to establish such unions.

 President Michelle Bachelet, who made the AUC one of her campaign promises, will now enact the bill.

The project, originally called Couple Life Agreement (AVP), was approved with 25 votes in favor, 6 against and 3 abstentions.

“The civil union is a fundamental institution for those couples that live together without being married. It is a judicial tool that does not discriminate, and applies to all types of couples. Most importantly, it allows us to recognize different family types and protect them all,” Government Secretary Alvaro Elizalde said on Wednesday.

The bill states that the AUC is a legal contract established between two people that share a home, with the goal to regulate judicial effects derived from their life together.

In her second term in office, Bachelet has been pushing through legislation at a dizzying pace, including a recently approved tax reform, changes to Chile's stratified education system and an overhaul of dictatorship-era electoral rules.

”There's been a profound cultural change in Chilean society which is reflected in (the fact that) a majority of people disapprove of discrimination and segregation based on someone's sexual orientation or their gender identity,” Rolando Jimenez, spokesman for LGBT rights group Movilh said.