Ecuador's Constitutional Court has legalised same-sex marriage:
Ecuador's highest court has approved same-sex marriage in a landmark ruling in the traditionally Catholic country.
The vote at the nine-member Constitutional Court came as they ruled on the lawsuits by two same-sex couples who wanted to get married.
Five voted in favour, arguing all people were equal. Four said the issue had to be debated in parliament.
Interestingly, Ecuador's constitution has an explicit bigot amendment restricting marriage to opposite genders. The Constitutional Court has effectively over-ruled that. Its an interesting development, which suggests that where there are existing anti-discrimination clauses or binding international agreements (in this case the American Convention on Human Rights), such clauses might not be as useful as bigots think.
