MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil: Same-sex marriages on the rise

Same-sex marriage in Brazil has been approved by the Supreme Federal Court but there is a movement in Congress to ban it by law

According to a study from the National Human Rights Observatory (ObservaDH), 59,620 same-sex marriages were registered in South America's largest country between 2013 and 2021, Agencia Brasil reported. The new figures represented a 148.7% increase in nine years, it was also explained. In the same period, 59,620 civil unions were also recorded, the survey showed.

The Human Rights and Citizenship Ministry (MDHC) agency produced its research from data supplied by the Civil Registry statistics from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

Only 3,700 registrations were entered in 2013 and 9,202 in 2021. The biggest annual increase occurred between 2017 and 2018 (61.7%) with 59,620 same-sex marriages accounting for 0.6% of all marriages nationwide. The percentage rose from 0.4% in 2013 to 1% in 2021. Most same-sex marriages (57.1%) were between women.

National Secretary for the Rights of LGBTQIA+ People Symmy Larrat argued that the data showed that legal protection for people of the same sex was vital for a fairer and more equal Brazil. “Fairness and guaranteed rights concern everyone in the population.”

Among Brazilian regions, the highest proportion of same-sex marriages was in the Southeast (0.8%) and the lowest in the North (0.3%). The highest percentages of same-sex marriages were recorded in Santa Catarina (1.1% of all marriages) and São Paulo (1%). The lowest proportions were in Acre, Maranhão, Rondônia, and Tocantins (0.2% each).

The Southeast had the highest number of marriages between women in these nine years (35,067), 58.8% of the country's total lesbo-homoaffective marriages. The region with the lowest number of registrations was the North, with 2,120 marriages between women (3.6% of the country's total).

The IBGE did not record any same-sex marriages with spouses under the age of 15 between 2013 and 2021. However, in hetero-affective marriages, 1,988 cases of girls and 158 cases of boys under the age of 15 were recorded in the same period. Marriages involving children under 16 are prohibited by the Civil Code. Since 2019, they are not permitted in any case.

More than 76% of homosexual people (lesbians and gays) rated their health as very good or good, while this percentage was 67.3% among bisexual people and 66.1% among heterosexual people, the study also showed. Lesbians and gays (56% homosexuals) and bisexual men and women (54.9%) reported having practiced physical activity in the 3 months prior to the survey in higher proportions than heterosexuals (41.9%).

Lesbians and gays have also been reported to have the highest household income per capita: 12% reported a household income per person of more than five minimum wages, while among bisexuals, 5% reached this income and among heterosexuals, this percentage was 6%. In terms of level of education, bisexuals, lesbians, and gays reported higher levels of education than heterosexuals.

ObservaDH was launched in December 2023 by the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship (MDHC). The publicly accessible virtual platform brings together a set of human rights indicators in various segments to disseminate and contribute to the analysis of information considered strategic and thus collaborate in the planning, monitoring, and evaluation of public policies.

In May 2011, the plenary session of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) unanimously equated same-sex relationships with stable unions between men and women, thus recognizing same-sex unions as a family nucleus.

Based on this understanding by the Supreme Court, which guarantees that same-sex couples have the same rights and duties that Brazilian legislation already establishes for heterosexual couples, the National Council of Justice (CNJ) published Resolution 175 in 2013, which prohibits notaries and judges from refusing to register same-sex unions and, what's more, determined that all registry offices in the country should perform same-sex marriages.

However, in October this year, the House of Representatives Committee on Welfare, Social Assistance, Children, Adolescents, and Family approved the bill banning same-sex marriage, with the opinion of the rapporteur, Deputy Pastor Eurico (PL-PE).

Several civil society organizations and representatives of the LGBTQIA+ community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and other sexual orientations and gender identities) are protesting against the bill, considering it unconstitutional because it violates the principle of equality.

(Source: Agencia Brasil)