Civil union in Peru: Thousands march against new bill and defend marriage

On Saturday, December 7, nearly 50,000 people marched with flags and balloons of light blue and pink colors in the center of Lima, in Peru, in rejection of the advancement of a “civil union” bill between same-sex couples.

Among the attendees who gathered in Plaza San Martín, families, Christian leaders and politicians stood out who defended the preservation of marriage, consisting of a man and a woman.

The aforementioned bill 02803/2022-CR It was approved on November 21 in the Justice and Human Rights Commission of Congress with 12 votes in favor, nine against and five abstentions. However, it must still be debated and approved in a plenary session.

The project has been criticized for attempting to establish a new civil status that is not contemplated in articles 4 and 5 of the Peruvian Constitution. This new status would seek to grant rights and duties similar to those of marriage between a man and a woman, and could even affect the hereditary rights of children.

Conflicting opinions

While Congressman Alejandro Cavero, author of the project, he claims that this initiative “represents progress in the defense of individual freedom” and that it does not affect the figure of marriage or contemplate the adoption of minors, its critics do not agree. Cavero said that the project seeks to grant rights such as priority medical decisions, inclusion in social security, shared assets, pension, economic benefits and inheritance rights to same-sex couples.

On the other hand, Congressman Alejandro Muñante, from the Popular Renewal Party, has expressed strong opposition to the project. In statements to EWTN Noticias, Muñante stressed that the proposal violates articles 4 and 5 of the Constitution, which only recognize marriage and de facto union between a man and a woman.

Muñante explained that opposition to the project is based on legal, constitutional and cultural aspects: “Civil union does not promote marriage because what it is doing is promoting an alternative union other than marriage.”

“The Constitution, in its article 5, states that a de facto union can only be formed between a man and a woman. Recognizing another type of union requires a constitutional reform, not a simple law,” he stated.

Furthermore, he pointed out that the proposal equates exclusive rights and obligations of marriage, such as the right to inherit on equal terms with children, which, according to him, distorts the concept of family: “Civil union is a new type of family that our Constitution has never recognized.”

“The State does not have the power to modify the concept of family, only to recognize it. This project aims to include rights beyond property, which makes it evident that it is not just about economic issues,” he said.

Father Luis Gaspar, priest of the Archdiocese of Lima and expert in canon law, also shared his perspective with EWTN News. According to the priest, article 4 and article 5 of the Political Constitution “explicitly refer to the union between a man and a woman.”

“In that sense, this civil union bill, basically—in a smuggling way, I would say—aims to equate civil union with natural marriage,” he emphasized.

The priest also stressed that “it is an unconstitutional bill, because it wants to grant the same rights that the Constitution recognizes exclusively to the union between a man and a woman as marriage, to unions of people of the same sex.”

Regarding the legislative process, he recalled that it has been approved only in the first instance and that it will now have to go to the Plenary Session of Congress. “I am sure that the Plenary will not approve it, since it is unconstitutional.”

He also warned about the progressive impact of this initiative: “Equating civil union with natural marriage, in essence, is granting them the same rights. In fact, one of those who presented the bill, Alejandro Cavero, has stated that another bill related to the adoption of children will come later.”

“Of course, all this comes little by little: they start with civil union, then they propose the adoption of children and finally they intend to grant all the rights that natural marriage between a man and a woman has,” he criticized.