AKA William

As gay and lesbian people in our nation’s capital celebrate the freedom to marry, Argentina’s capital takes a step back.

Following the ruling that allowed Alex Freyre and Jose Maria Di Bellower to marry, a second Buenos Aires judge ruled that a second gay couple could also get married. And Damian Bernath, 39, and Jorge Salazar Capon, 43, were married on March 3.

But their marriage was short-lived.

A federal judge in Argentina reversed the decision that allowed the couple to get married.

LifeSiteNews reports:

[Judge Felix Igarzabal] based his decision on article 172 of Argentina’s national civil code, which states that the “complete and free consent expressed personally by a man and a woman before the authority that is competent to celebrate it, is indispensable for the existence of matrimony.”

The couple’s attorney, Florenzia Kravetz, said the two had not received formal notification of the decision, and claimed that the “marriage” would legally remain in effect until such notification was delivered.

Kravetz also denied that the judge had jurisdiction in the case. However, the Corporation of Catholic Attorneys responded by pointing out that “a city judge does not have jurisdiction when the issue is marriage. Those who have authority are the national civil courts.”

And the Catholic News Agency writes that, in his decision, the judge wrote that no marriage had taken place “because of the absence of the institution’s structural elements” — meaning a man and a woman. The judge has ordered the two men to turn in any marriage licenses or documentation within 72 hours or face monetary penalties.

Maria Rachid, president of the Argentina Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Transsexuals, said that her organization plans to appeal the decision to Argentina’s Supreme Court.

As far as I can tell, this ruling appears to affect just this marriage and not the country’s first same sex marriage between Alex Freyre and Jose Maria Di Bellowere.