http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040528/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/brazil_civil_unions_1
Fri May 28, 3:31 AM ET
By ALAN CLENDENNING, Associated Press Writer
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil - To the cheers of a delighted crowd, Joazinho Moraes and Alcindo Sandini exchanged gold rings and cut their white wedding cake inside their beauty salon across the street from the city's Roman Catholic cathedral.
A day earlier, the two men sealed their commitment by signing papers before a justice of the peace, becoming the latest gay couple to get hitched in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil's first state to permit civil unions between same-sex couples.
Now it was time to party with champagne and hors d'oeuvres, a celebration that symbolizes one of the biggest gains for gay rights in Latin America.
Unlike the controversy raging in the United States over gay marriages, a landmark judicial decision two months ago allowing civil unions in Brazil's southernmost state has generated little tension in Porto Alegre. It's such a non-issue in South America's largest country that many people don't even know about it.