The Argentine city of Lomas de Zamora has approved a resolution urging senators to vote in favor of a gay marriage bill, Inforegion.com reported.

City leaders approved the resolution on an 8-1 vote, with an additional 8 lawmakers deciding to abstain.

The resolution was introduced by Juan Maria Vinales, president of the local Partido Justicia political block.

Vinales said Argentina's civil marriage law could not be reconciled with the nation's constitution, which claims equality for all people.

Lomas de Zamora is a city in the province of Buenos Aires and is located next to the city of Buenos Aires. It claims a population of slightly under 112,000.

Argentina's Senate began debate on a gay marriage bill earlier in the month after lawmakers in the country's lower house, the Chamber of Deputies (la Camara de Diputados), approved the bill on May 6.

The measure has been assigned to the General Law Committee and is not expected to reach the Senate floor until July, where it will likely face a tight vote. The bill has an even number of supporters and opponents among senators who answered a DyN poll, but 17 senators remain unaccounted for.

Lomas de Zamora city councilors who decided to abstain from voting on the resolution said they support equal rights for gay men and lesbians but could not endorse marriage.

“I'm not against equal rights,” Guzman Carasatorre said, “but as a Christian I believe in the union of a man and a woman.”

The Roman Catholic Church is strongly opposed to the legislation.

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, Alejandro Luna and Gilles Grall, a Frenchman, became the fifth gay couple to marry in Argentina.

Earlier in the month, lawmakers in Portugal legalized gay marriage.