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After 15 hours of debate, the Senate narrowly voted to allow gay people to wed making Argentina the first in Latin America to permit it. The bill is a source of bitter friction between the Roman Catholic Church and President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Bergoglio declared it a “destructive attack on God’s plan" and encouraged large demonstrations. Kirchner said: “They are portraying this as a religious moral issue and as a threat to ‘the natural order,’ when what we are really doing is looking at a reality that is already there. It would be a terrible distortion of democracy if they denied minorities their rights.” Her husband Nestor, former president and now a congressman, has been actively pushing the gay marriage bill before the 2011 elections, when he is expected to run for president again. Recent polls showed that an estimated 70% of Argentinians approved of same sex marriage.
