Same-sex marriage has been legal in Chile since 10 March 2022. The path to legalization began in June 2021 when President Sebastián Piñera announced his administration's intention to sponsor a bill to open marriage to same-sex couples. The Chilean Senate passed the legislation on 21 July, followed by the Chamber of Deputies on 23 November. Due to disagreements between the two chambers of the National Congress on certain aspects of the bill, a mixed commission was formed to resolve these issues. A unified version of the bill was approved on 7 December. President Piñera signed it into law on 9 December, and it was published in the country's official gazette on 10 December 2021. The law took effect 90 days later, and the first same-sex marriages occurred on 10 March 2022. Chile was the sixth country in South America, the seventh in Latin America and the 29th in the world to legalize same-sex marriage.
Chile also recognizes civil unions, which are available to all couples regardless of sexual orientation and provide some, but not all, of the rights of marriage. The first civil unions were registered on 22 October 2015.
Civil unions Bachelet's first presidency In the January 2006 presidential campaign, both major candidates, center-left Michelle Bachelet and center-right Sebastián Piñera, voiced their support for civil unions, but the Catholic Church and many members of the National Congress were opposed. A civil union bill was introduced to the National Congress in October 2009, but it failed to pass.
Piñera's first presidency
During his run-up to the presidency in 2009, Piñera vowed to end discrimination based on sexual orientation and included a same-sex couple in one of his televised campaign ads. In June 2010, Senator Andrés Allamand from the National Renewal party submitted a bill to permit a "Common Life Agreement" (), which would have been open to both different-sex and same-sex couples. On 3 August 2010, Senator Fulvio Rossi from the Socialist Party introduced a bill to legalize same-sex marriage. During the first week of September 2010, several senators backing the marriage bill said they would withdraw their support after talks with members of the Evangelical Church, and instead announced support for the civil union bill introduced by Allamand.
In May 2011, President Piñera said he was in favor of an upcoming bill to legalize a form of civil union; his stated intent was to "protect and safeguard [...] the dignity of those couples, whether of the opposite or even the same sex". Piñera introduced a bill to Congress in August 2011 allowing registered cohabitation, known as ("Life Partnership Agreement"). This would have given unmarried partners many of the rights granted to married couples, such as inheritance and certain social welfare and health care benefits. Under Piñera's legislation, same-sex couples would have been able to register their civil partnerships with a notary."Acuerdo de vida en común": Conoce de qué se trata este proyecto de ley El Vacanudo. 12-08-2011. On 10 April 2013, the civil union bill was approved by the Senate's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee by a 4–1 vote.Draft law establishing and regulating the Life Partner Agreement, Government of Chile On 7 January 2014, the Senate voted 28–6 in favor, but the bill was not voted on by the Chamber of Deputies before the end of the parliamentary session in March 2014, despite it being a priority issue for Piñera.
Bachelet's second presidency
When Michelle Bachelet again took office as president in March 2014, she made passing Piñera's civil union bill a priority. A Senate committee approved the bill on 5 August, and it passed the Senate on 7 October.Chilean Senate advances civil unions bill The name of the bill was changed to "Civil Union Pact" () on 17 December, and Congress reiterated its intention to hold a final vote by January 2015. On 6 January, a provision recognizing foreign marriages as civil unions was approved by the Constitution Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, while a clause recognizing adoption rights was rejected. As the bill was amended, it went to a final vote in both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.Comisión de Constitución de la Cámara despacha el Pacto de Unión Civil limitando los derechos de hijos e hijas On 13 January, the Chamber of Deputies reinserted the adoption provision, and on 20 January it approved the bill on a vote of 86 to 23 with 2 abstentions. The Senate rejected all the Chamber's amendments on 27 January, so the bill was sent to a joint committee of both houses. Pacto de Unión Civil: Senado rechaza texto aprobado por la Cámara para zanjar disensos en comisión mixta The committee reached an agreement with regard to the text of the bill and changed the name to "Civil Union Agreement" (, ) the same day. The bill was passed in both houses on 28 January. Comisión mixta concluye revisión de proyecto de Unión Civil: Mañana se vota en la Cámara y el Senado Several lawmakers asked the Constitutional Court to verify the bill's constitutionality, which was upheld by the court in a ruling released on 6 April 2015. The bill was signed into law by President Bachelet on 13 April.Chilean president signs civil unions billChilean president signs same-sex civil union law It was published in the Diario Oficial de la República de Chile on 21 April and took effect on 22 October 2015. Acuerdo de Unión Civil Ley número 20.830. - Crea el Acuerdo de Unión Civil
Chile's civil union provisions enable couples to claim pension benefits, inherit property and make medical decisions for partners, but exclude adoption rights. All disputes and conflicts involving civil partners are dealt with by the family courts (). The government estimated at the time of the law going into effect that some two million cohabiting couples could have their unions legally recognized. Approximately 1,600 couples had signed up to register their unions by the first day. The first same-sex civil union on Easter Island was performed in November 2015. On 1 December 2016, the Chamber of Deputies unanimously passed a bill granting civil partners five days' marriage leave, similarly to newly married couples. The bill was approved by the Senate in October 2017 in a unanimous 15–0 vote, Tema: Proyecto de ley, en segundo trámite constitucional, que modifica el Código del Trabajo, con el objeto de aplicar al trabajador que celebra un acuerdo de unión civil el permiso laboral que se otorga a quien contrae matrimonio. and took effect on 8 November 2017.
Statistics 101,715 couples entered into civil unions between 2015 and 2025, of which 15% were same-sex couples (7,906 female couples and 7,281 male couples). This proportion was higher between October and December 2015 when 28.7% of civil unions were to same-sex couples. However, in the following months, this number declined to around 15%.
Between 2016 and 2019, 248,567 marriages and 22,951 civil unions were performed in Chile, of which 5,950 were to same-sex couples. Most civil unions were performed in the Santiago Metropolitan Region (44%), followed by the Valparaíso Region (14%). Considering population, the region with the largest number of civil unions was Antofagasta (7.6 per 10,000 inhabitants), while the lowest was Araucanía (2.0 per 10,000 inhabitants). The Santiago Metropolitan Region also had the largest share of same-sex civil unions compared to opposite-sex unions (27%), followed by O'Higgins (22%) and Valparaíso (20%). On the other hand, Aysén had the lowest share of same-sex unions (8%), followed by Los Ríos (11%), Coquimbo (12%) and Magallanes (12%).
+Number of civil unions registered in Chile Year Same-sex unions Opposite-sexunions Totalunions %same-sex Female Male Total2015 274 357 631 1,566 2,197 28.72%2016 744 854 1,598 5,6767,274 21.97%2017 662 613 1,275 4,9476,222 20.49%20187407431,4835,7737,25620.44%20198517431,5946,5558,14919.56%20205835291,1124,2165,32820.87%20219898141,8036,8588,66120.82%20225454641,0097,9088,91711.32%20235384931,03110,71411,7458.78%20248297491,57814,68816,2669.70%20251,1519222,07317,62719,70010.5%
Same-sex marriage
Background and court cases The first attempts to legalize same-sex marriage in Chile occurred after the ban was legally challenged in various national and international courts in the early 2010s. The Constitutional Court of Chile heard oral arguments on 28 July 2011 regarding the constitutionality of article 102 of the Civil Code, which at the time banned same-sex marriage, but ruled in a 9–1 vote on 3 November that the ban was not unconstitutional. The ban was challenged at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) in 2012. This lawsuit alleged that banning same-sex marriage violated the American Convention on Human Rights and Chile's international obligations. The Piñera Government expressed its opposition to the suit in 2013. Even though some minor presidential candidates had announced their support for same-sex marriage, Michelle Bachelet was the first major candidate to declare her support in the lead up to the November 2013 presidential elections. On 11 April 2013, she announced her intention to legalize same-sex marriage if elected president. Bachelet, who had previously been president of Chile between 2006 and 2010, won the election on 15 December 2013. After Bachelet's inauguration in March 2014, the Homosexual Integration and Liberation Movement (MOVILH; ) announced it would seek an amicable solution to the lawsuit presented to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. On 10 December 2014, a group of senators from various parties presented a bill legalizing same-sex marriage and adoption to the National Congress. On 17 February 2015, government lawyers and MOVILH met to discuss the case, and the government announced it would drop its opposition to same-sex marriage.Chilean government to end opposition to same-sex marriage (Washington Blade - February 18 2015) A formal agreement between the two parties and the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights was signed in April 2015.