[JURIST] The Argentine Supreme Court [official website, in Spanish] on Tuesday announced that it would rule on the constitutionality of two articles of the Civil Code [text, in Spanish] prohibiting same-sex marriage [JURIST news archives]. The announcement [AFP report] comes one day after National Court Judge Marta Gomez Alsina issued an injunction [text, PDF, in Spanish] halting the country's first legal gay marriage, set for Tuesday in the capital city of Buenos Aires. Jose Maria Di Bello and his partner, Alex Freyre, had been granted permission [court order text, in Spanish] to wed last month when a Buenos Aires judge declared [La Nacion report, in Spanish] articles 172 and 188 of the Civil Code, limiting marriage to one man and one woman, to be contrary to the Argentine Constitution [text, PDF]. Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri [BBC profile] said shortly thereafter that he would not appeal [press release, in Spanish; JURIST report] the city court's ruling.

Argentina's Parliament [official website, in Spanish] is currently debating [El Mundo report, in Spanish] two proposals that would modify the nation's definition of marriage for the first time, with 50,000 marching in support of legalization [JURIST report] last month. Buenos Aires became the first Latin American city to legalize same-sex unions in 2002, and was later followed by four other Argentine cities. Uruguay, which remains the only Latin American country that has nationally legalized same-sex unions, expanded the rights given to same-sex couples by passing a law earlier this year allowing same-sex couples to adopt [JURIST report]. Canada [JURIST report] is the only American nation to have legalized same-sex marriage, while Spain [JURIST report] is the only nation in the Spanish-speaking world to have done the same. Both nations legalized gay marriage in 2005.