Photo: Claudio Reyes/AFP via Getty

Same-sex newlyweds Jaime Nazar (L) and Javier Silva (R) pose after their wedding in Santiago on March 10, 2022. - Two couples of women and men celebrated on Thursday the first equal marriages in Chile, where the law passed at the end of 2021 came into force after years of struggle by various organisations defending the rights of the LGTBQ community.

Chile is ushering in a new era of LGBTQ equality.

Javier Silva and Jaime Nazar were the country’s first same-sex couple to wed Thursday after a marriage equality law, a decade in the making, went into effect in the conservative South American nation.

“Being the first couple to get married in Chile for us is an honor, something to be proud of,” Silva told reporters at the nuptials, according toNBC News. “We did it! It’s something we didn’t think could happen.”

PresidentGabriel Boric, who took office Friday, also congratulated the happy couple on Twitter.

“What joy! My congratulations to Jaime and Javier for being the first couple to get married under the new #MatrimonioIgualitario law. To continue advancing for a Chile with equal rights and freedoms for all people,” hewrote.

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“Now our children have the same rights (as other families) and they will be able to have, we hope, a better future, that they will not be discriminated against for having two parents who love each other,” Silva said.

“I think we’re putting ourselves at the level the rest of the world is living in, which is great,” Nazar added. “I know our society is very conservative, but I also know we have a promising future as a country.”

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Consuelo Morales Aros and Pabla Heuser Amaya were also among the first same-sex couples to tie the knot Thursday. The couple, both 38, has been together for 16 years and cited their 2-year-old daughter Josefa as the reason they wanted to get married.

“It was our dream that we both be her parents,” Aros toldBBC. Although she provided the egg, Amaya carried the pregnancy and was previously the child’s only legally recognized biological mother.

Amaya expressed her joy over the fact that Josefa “will finally have the two mothers she deserves instead of just one.”

Since 2015, Chile has recognized same-sex couples through Civil Union Agreements, which provided some legal benefits.

source: people.com