by Rex Wockner
International News
Uruguay's first civil union took place April 17, more than three months after Latin America's first national civil-union law came into force.
Actor Adrian Figuera, 38, and theater director Juan Carlos Moretti, 67, tied the knot before a judge, family and friends.
The couple have been together 14 years.
Couples must live together for five years before they can take advantage of the law, which grants spousal rights in areas that include inheritance, property ownership, pensions, parenting and health care.
The law applies to "two people — whatever their sex, identity, orientation or sexual option may be — who maintain an emotional relationship of a sexual nature [and] an exclusive, singular, stable and permanent character without being united in matrimony."
Other Latin American localities with civil-union laws include the city of Buenos Aires, the Argentine province of Rio Negro, the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, Mexico City, and the Mexican state of Coahuila, which borders Texas.
