A total of 309 same-sex Colombian couples entered into legal unions in the second half of 2011, according to official figures, reported Radio Caracol Tuesday.
Bogota registered 96 same-sex unions between July and December of 2011, the highest recorded number of any city in the country.
In January and February of 2012, 62 couples passed through notaries to make their unions official.
The majority of the registrations occurred in departments in the western part of the country while departments in southern and eastern Colombia had no recorded union requests.
A 2009 Colombian Supreme Court decision recognized cohabitating same-sex couples as de facto unions that could be registered through a public deed before a notary or judge. The ruling afforded homosexual couples all rights offered to unmarried heterosexual couples.
In 2011, Colombia’s Supreme Court called on legislators to pass gay marriage into law by 2013. If Congress does not pass the bill by that time, same-sex couples will automatically be permitted to formalize their union before a public notary or court and granted all legal marriage rights.
