by Rex Wockner
International News Briefs
The Board of Health of Colombia's National Police granted health insurance benefits to the partner of a gay officer May 14.
The extension of coverage to Fabian Mauricio Chibcha Romero followed a January ruling by the nation's Constitutional Court that granted marital rights to common law same-sex couples in areas that include civil service, contracts with the government, housing protection and assistance, immigration, social security, death indemnification and criminal nonincrimination.
The activist group Colombia Diversa said the ruling encompassed all the "civil, political, social, economic, criminal and immigration rights … of a common law union, minus adoption."
Chibcha also gained access to police housing subsidies and vacation clubs.
