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<div class="">May 14, 2013</div>
<h1>Brazilian Court Council Removes a Barrier to Same-Sex Marriage</h1>
<h6 class="">By
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<a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/simon_romero/index.html" rel="author" title="More Articles by SIMON ROMERO"><span>SIMON ROMERO</span></a></span></h6>
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RIO DE JANEIRO — The council overseeing <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/brazil/index.html?inline=nyt-geo" title="More news and information about Brazil." class="">Brazil</a>’s judiciary ruled on Tuesday that notary publics cannot refuse to perform <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/same_sex_marriage/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about Same-Sex Marriage, Civil Unions, and Domestic Partnerships." class="">same-sex marriage</a> ceremonies, a decision that opens the way for gay couples across Latin America’s largest country to marry. </p>
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The move by the National Council of Justice, a 15-member panel led by
Joaquim Barbosa, the chief justice of the nation’s high court,
effectively legalizes gay marriage throughout Brazil, legal scholars
here said. The decision follows <a title="Times article" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/world/americas/16argentina.html">legislation in two</a>
neighboring countries, Argentina and Uruguay, where lawmakers have
managed to pass bills authorizing same-sex marriage nationwide in recent
years. </p>
<p>
Still, there is some room for judicial appeals of the Brazilian
decision, potentially within the high court, the Supreme Federal
Tribunal, and resistance may emerge in Congress, where gay-marriage
legislation has faced opposition from an influential bloc of evangelical
Christian lawmakers. Even so, supporters of same-sex marriage described
the council’s decision as pioneering. </p>
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“This resolution will end the resistance of some courts, judges and
notary publics,” said Maria Berenice Dias, the vice president of the
Brazilian Institute of Family Law, a nonprofit organization that has
sought for years to extend marriage benefits to gay couples. </p>
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The National Council of Justice, which includes prominent judges,
prosecutors and lawyers, voted 14 to 1 in favor of the measure. Under
the council’s decision, notary publics will also be required to convert
same-sex civil unions into marriages, if couples wish to do so. </p>
<p>
In 2011, the high court ruled by a comfortable margin that same-sex
civil unions should be allowed. But while such unions provide couples in
Brazil with access to benefits like health insurance and the division
of assets in cases of separation, the council’s decision provides
same-sex couples who marry with the same standing as heterosexuals,
allowing them, for instance, to take each other’s surnames and adopt
children more easily. </p>
<p>
In certain ways, the decision broadens what has already unfolded in
different of parts of Brazil, where legislatures in more than 10 states
have legalized same-sex marriage. </p>
<p>
But even with such laws, many notary publics — who not only certify but
also carry out marriage ceremonies in Brazil — have refused to comply
for gay couples, a resistance that has been backed by some of the
regional judges who oversee them. </p>
<p>
“The Supreme Federal Tribunal had already shown that it was supporting
minority rights by supporting gay unions,” said Thiago Bottino, a law
professor at Fundação Getúlio Vargas, a top university. “The council’s
decision is logical, since it would not make sense to deprive people of
their rights because some notary publics and judges saw things
differently.” </p>
<p>
Brazil’s courts generally hew to the decisions of the National Council
of Justice, which was created in 2004 and has functioned largely as a
disciplinary body for the judiciary. But Congress could be another
matter, as tensions simmer between Brazil’s legislative and judicial
branches over the high court’s <a title="Times article" href="http://m.nyt.com/2013/05/11/world/americas/despite-convictions-brazil-corruption-case-remains-open.html?from=world">conviction of legislators</a> involved in a vast vote-buying scandal. </p>
<p>
Moreover, legislators who oppose same-sex marriage have recently grown
more vocal in Congress. Marco Feliciano, a conservative evangelical
preacher who now leads the lower house’s commission for human rights and
minorities, has drawn criticism for comments that gay-rights activists
call homophobic, but he has resisted pressure to step down from the
post. </p>
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