Roughly 3,000 people on Saturday
rallied in support of a proposed civil unions bill in Peru.
Among those marching through the
streets of Lima was the bill's sponsor, Congressman Carlos Bruce.
“This march is part of human
diversity and our constitution allows this diversity to exist,”
Bruce is quoted as saying by La
Republica. “Now, what happens is that the law does not
allow two people of the same sex to join with all the protection of
the state.”
Maria Cristian Carnero, president of
Association of Families for Sexual Diversity (Asociacion de Familias
por la Diversidad Sexual), a group dedicated to supporting parents
with gay children, said that the legislation was needed because
currently gay couples are granted no recognition.
Religious leaders opposed to gay rights
have called for a referendum on the issue.
“If there is an interest to get these
issues, there should be a referendum,” Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani,
also the archbishop of Lima, said
last week on a morning radio program. “The people should be
consulted.”
The Peruvian
Episcopal Conference agreed, saying that the unions of gay
couples “go against the natural order, distort the true identity of
the family, contradict the purpose of marriage, violate the human
dignity of all Peruvians, threaten the healthy orientation of
children, and damage the fundamentals of our society, which aspires
to an integral human development.”