132 same-sex couples were legally married Sunday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in what is believed to be the world’s largest mass same-sex wedding
The ceremony was held in the auditorium of the School of Magistrates of Rio de Janeiro.
Each of the 132 couples were able to invite up to ten family members and friends, which made the auditorium very overcrowded with supporters.
The ceremony was attended by the president of the Association of Magistrates of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Orto Claudius, who said of the couples’ right to marry ‘it is very easy to put in the Constitution that all Brazilians are equal before the law, although it is much more difficult to achieve this in reality.’
Brazilian courts began marrying same-sex couples in May following a Federal Court ruling that gay couples could apply to be married by courts, though many Brazilian jurisdictions had already being doing so since 2011.
Rio de Janeiro began allowing local judges to perform same-sex marriages if they wanted to in April this year but this is the largest number of couples to marry in a single ceremony to date – either in Brazil or in the world.
by Andrew Potts
Source – Gay Star News
