The Senate will resume debate Tuesday on draft legislation. Among other things, the proposal would allow a beneficiary of the social security system to register his partner for benefits under the system.
A partner would also have rights of inheritance and receive a substitution pension at the death of his partner, the Cali newspaper El País reported.
Interior Minister Fernando Londoño Hoyos announced his opposition to the draft because, in his judgment, the way it is conceived «is dangerous for the patrimonial management of persons.»
«Two men or two women living together are not necessarily homosexuals,» he said. «There could be the case of students who make this decision to lower costs and, with this draft law one could claim the patrimony of the other.»
Londoño emphasized that the government did not have moral objections to the draft.
A document of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, published on July 31, stated that all laws that seek legal recognition of homosexual unions are «gravely immoral,» and cannot receive the vote of Catholic politicians.
