Brazil

On May 14, 2013, the National Council of Justice in Brazil ruled that government offices that issue marriage licenses have no standing to reject same-sex couples from marriage. Since 2011, federal marriage laws in Brazil have been somewhat confusing: On May 5, 2011, the Supreme Federal Court voted to allow same-sex couples nationwide many of the legal rights as married couples (through a mechanism called "stable union"), and since June 2011, same-sex couples joined together in "stable union" may petition judges to convert their union into a marriage. The two-step process to being married can be performed across Brazil, and in recent months, many jurisdictions have ordered a final end to the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage. Before the May 2013 ruling, 14 of Brazil's 27 jurisdictions had passed the freedom to marry.