For the second time, the Colombian Senate has postponed debate on a marriage equality bill which they are obliged to pass, in terms of a 2011 Constitutional Court ruling. A Green Party senator, John Sudarksy, lays the blame squarely at the door of the Colombian Catholic Church.
I think most of the prejudice can be directly linked to the Catholic Church here who is vehemently opposed to gay marriage and hence chooses such people who come up with the most ridiculous statements.
These ‘arguments’ are built around fear and misinformation: fear of the break up of the family, fear of LGBT couples adopting children and rearing them as gay, and so on.
Such arguments have no scientific backing whatsoever and are designed to misinform, confuse and install fear, ignorance and cloud people’s reasoning.
- Gay Star News
That Catholic bishops are using their political influence to oppose marriage equality will surprise no - one. What caught my attention, though, was Sudarsky’s observations on the state of heterosexual families in the country, starkly illustrating the hypocrisy inherent in the bishops’ claim that their opposition is intended to protect the family, and the welfare of children:
Colombia is a country where the Catholic Church has a great deal of influence and interest to maintain such prejudice.
I say its prejudice because most children in Colombia are not born to couples in formal marriages; in fact, we have the lowest percentage of the world.
Only 1.7 in 1,000 children are born to the traditional family within the context of marriage as defined by the Catholic Church.
The Church therefore is trying to ‘protect’ an institution is not dominant today and perhaps never has been.
Families are much more diverse and complex these days and its time Colombia acknowledges it.
The Church is thus more concerned about continuing its long traditions of discriminating against children born outside wedlock rather than justice, equality and diversity before the law.
- Gay Star News
I thought that Sudarsky’s figure of only 1.7 children born to traditional families exceptionally low, so attempted to check. I’ve been unable to find a source with figures to corroborate that precise claim, but the general thrust of his observation is certainly valid. Several on-line sources confirm that the percentage of Colombian children born outside of marriage, living with unmarried parents, or living with only a single parent, or with none, are among the highest in the world.
The most useful of the sources I found was at “World Family Map“, which shows that:
- Only 19% of Colombian adults of reproductive age are married, with twice as many cohabiting. At 39%, this rate of cohabitation is the highest in the world.
- In consequence, 85% of children are born to unmarried mothers.
- only 58% of Colombian children live with two parents (I have not been able to track down a split between parents in “ marriage as defined by the Catholic Church”, two cohabiting biological parents, or any of the possible permutations involving step - parents).
- approximately 30% live with a single parent.
- 12% live without either of their parents
With heterosexual marriage in this kind of shape, it would make more sense for the Colombian bishops to encourage people to marry, irrespective of gender or orientation, in order to strengthen a critically weak institution.
Related articles
- Equal Marriage Juggernaut Accelerating. (queeringthechurch.com)
- Equal Marriage for Catholic Uruguay! (queeringthechurch.com)
- Marriage Equality Battle in France: Catholicism Embracing Hard Right (bilgrimage.blogspot.com)
- Catholic Cardinals, Bishops Evolving on Civil Unions, Gay Relationships (queeringthechurch.com)
