[JURIST] Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri [BBC profile] said Friday he will not appeal [press release, in Spanish] a court ruling [VOA report] that allows same-sex marriages [JURIST news archives] in the capital city of Argentina. Macri called the ruling [Buenos Aires Herald report] a significant step, saying "it is important to accept and live with this new reality, which is the direction that the world goes, as to safeguard the right of every person to freely choose with whom to pair and be happy." Macri also said the decision not to appeal was difficult [CNN report], as he was under a lot of pressure to do so. The mayor likened the debate about same-sex marriage to that of the issue of divorce, saying it was considered traumatic at the time but is now normal. If the decision is not appealed, it would make Buenos Aires the first city in Latin American to recognize same-sex marriages.

On Friday, Buenos Aires Judge Gabriela Seijas permitted a same-sex couple to marry, after the civil registry in the city declined to acknowledge their marriage. Upon hearing the complaint of Alex Freyre and Jose Maria Di Bello, Seijas ordered the civil registry to validate the marriage saying, "the law should treat everybody with the same respect, regardless of their singularities, without the need to understanding and regulating them." Buenos Aires became the first Latin American city to legalize same-sex unions in 2002, and was later followed by four other Argentine cities. Argentina's Parliament [official website, in Spanish] is currently debating [El Mundo report, in Spanish] the matter of same-sex marriage for the first time, with 50,000 marching in support of legalization [JURIST report] last week. Two proposals are under review that would modify numerous laws in the nation's Civil Code [text, in Spanish] that define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.