The plenary session of Colombia's Constitutional Court rejected a request to nullify a ruling legalizing same-sex marriage that the same court had issued in April 2016.

The appeal, presented by the then Attorney General Alejandro Ordoñez Maldonado, argued that the court wanted to “impose” an ideological mindset allegedly opposed to the beliefs of the majority of Colombians.

Ordoñez Maldonado quoted the 1991 Constitution, which defines the family as a woman and a man. The former attorney general presented a series of appeals against all the court's rulings favoring the LGBTI community during his eight years in office.

In 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples also defined family, under pressure from LGBTI groups, and gave the Colombian congress a two-year time frame to pass legislation that would allow same-sex couples to wed. Adoption and civil unions were already legalized.

A law was voted down by the Colombian senate in 2013. But since no legislation was passed, couples began filing marriage licenses and mounting legal challenges to the lack of equality, paving the way for the landmark measure approved by the Colombian Supreme Court on April 7, 2016.

The decision came after a string of victories for the LGBTI community in Colombia, including a law that allows members of the transgender community to be legally recognized by the gender that matches their identity, not the one issued at birth.

Telesur |