A gay marriage bill approved by
Argentina's Chamber of Deputies (la Camara de Diputados) faces a
tight vote in the Senate.
In a poll conducted by news agency DyN
released Thursday, 27 senators said they are in support of the bill,
while another 27 said they would vote against it. One senator said
he will abstain.
That only leaves 17 lawmakers
unaccounted for.
Argentine President Christina Fernandez
de Kirchner has said she would not block the measure from becoming
law, if approved by senators.
But even the president's own political
block, the Front for Victory, which is behind the bill, is divided on
the issue. Of its 32 senators, only 14 said they planned to vote for
the bill.
The bill has been assigned to the
General Law Committee chaired by Liliana Negre de Alonso, who has
said that while she disagrees with giving gay and lesbian couples the
right to marry, she won't block debate on the issue.
Senators are not expected to vote on
the bill until July, at the earliest.
The gay marriage bill advanced in the
Chamber of Deputies along a 125-to-109 vote after lawmakers debated
between moving on a bill that would give gay and lesbian couples the
right to marry – including the right to adopt – and a civil
unions bill that did not include gay adoption.
Gay marriage has dominated national
headlines since December when two men married for the first time in
Latin America. Just days before deputies debated the measure, two
men in Buenos Aires became the fifth gay couple to marry in
Argentina.
The Roman Catholic Church is strongly
opposed to the legislation.