BUENOS AIRES — A judge in Argentina has annulled the first gay marriage in Latin America, state media said Thursday, but the two men in the groundbreaking union said they would appeal the decision.

Judge Marcos Mellien, in the southern city of Ushuaia where the wedding took place last December, ruled the marriage "non-existent," the Telam news agency said quoting a judicial source.

The judge cited an article in Argentina's civil code which forbids marriage between two people of the same sex, according to the agency. ...

On Thursday, a committee of the lower Chamber of Deputies recommended a same-sex marriage bill be put forward for consideration by the full chamber in coming weeks.

Labels: Argentina, gay marriage

VOTE

Lawyers for heirs to an Argentine media empire say police raided their homes amid suspicions they were victims of state-organised forced adoption.

The alleged raid took place a day after Felipe and Marcela Noble complied with a court order and gave blood samples.

They were adopted by Clarin media mogul Ernestina Herrera de Noble in 1976.

Campaigners allege that they are the offspring of political prisoners who gave birth while in custody during the country's period of military rule.

They believe the biological parents of the siblings were killed in prisons and their babies were then taken by the state.

Under the country's former regime, babies were often given to families considered loyal to the military. ...

The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo group, which seeks to find some 500 children born to prisoners or abducted along with their parents during the 1976-1983 dictatorship, has demanded that the DNA be collected at the data bank.

Last month, the Congress backed a proposal from the group, allowing the forced extraction of DNA from adults who may be the children of political prisoners - even when they do not want to know.

Labels: adoption, Argentina, forced adoption

VOTE