President Juan Manuel Santos‘ National Unity coalition will meet to discuss how it will address gay marriage, El Espectador reported Wednesday.
The meeting is a response to yesterday’s declaration by the Supreme Court that homosexual partnerships constitute families. The court instructed Congress to pass a bill granting homosexuals similar partner rights to straight couples and gave Congress two years to do so.
Interior Minister German Vargas Lleras said that the meeting was meant to determine how the coalition should proceed, given the wide array of parties it contains. “We will sit with the parties to see how we address the issue,” said Vargas Lleras.
The coalition currently consists of many parties with disparate views on gay rights. The Liberal Party will likely support some form of gay marriage as well as adoption rights.
“The Liberal Party has always supported rights for same-sex couples,” said Liberal Party leader Rafael Pardo Rueda. “I think you cannot put limitations based on sexual orientation for the possibility of adoption.”
Members of the conservative parties in the coalition have stated their opposition to both gay marriage and adoption. Conservative Senator Eduardo Maya said that he does not accept same-sex partnerships as marriages and is against granting homosexuals the right to adopt children who might learn to appreciate their parent’s example.
A spokesman for the Partidad de la U, Roy Barreras, said that he was for granting gay-couples the right to live together, but was against granting them adoption rights.
Congress has attempted to pass a bill acknowledging some form of gay marriage six times without success.
If the legislature fails to address the issue in two years, gay couples can go before a notary to have their partnership formally recognized.