Colombian Congressman Marco Fidel
Suarez on Wednesday harshly criticized initial support for a gay
marriage bill.
The bill cleared its first hurdle in
the Senate on Tuesday.
With a 10-5 vote, the First Committee
(Comision Primera) approved Senator Armando Benedetti's proposed
measure. Benedetti's proposal originally sought to create civil
unions for gay and lesbian couples. He has since altered the
language to marriage. However, Benedetti's bill would not give
married gay couples the right to adopt children.
Tuesday's vote was the first of four
needed for the measure to become law.
Suarez, a member of the conservative
Partido Conservador Colombiano party, told daily El Espectador
that Congress had “disgraced” the nation.
“Marriage and family is a man and a
woman,” he said. “As established in Article 42 of the
constitution, the family is the nucleus of society, and that consists
of a man and a woman.”
Congress was ordered last year by
Colombia's Constitutional Court to recognize gay unions before July
20, 2013.
Suarez said the court was “composed
of men who are obviously fallible and it's not the heavenly court.”