Brazil has became the third and largest Latin
American country to give a de facto green light to same-sex marriage,
reports AFP in The Australian.In a bold stride for the majority Roman Catholic nation, the National Council of Justice, a panel which oversees Brazil's legal system and is headed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court, said government offices that issue marriage licenses had no standing to reject gay couples.
"This is the equivalent of authorising same-sex marriage in Brazil," said Raquel Pereira de Castro Araujo, head of the human rights committee of the Brazilian bar association.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Joaquim Barbosa explained that there was no reason for government marriage licensing offices to wait for Congress to pass a law on same-sex marriage before extending gays rights they legally already have.
Barbosa noted that the Supreme Court in 2011 recognised stable homosexual unions, ruling that the constitution guaranteed them the same rights as heterosexual couples.
"Are we going to require the approval of a new law by Congress to put into effect the ruling that already has been made by the Supreme Court? That would make no sense," he said in comments quoted by the G1 news website.
The earlier Supreme Court decision "is binding" and should be followed by the lower courts, Barbosa stressed.