Washington Post–With advocates for gay rights watching worldwide, Argentina early Thursday legalized same-sex marriages to become the first country in an overwhelmingly Catholic region, Latin America, to grant same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples.

After 14 hours of sometimes heated debate that lasted nearly until dawn, the Senate voted 33 to 27 to approve the Marriage for People of the Same Sex bill, which had been approved by the lower house in May and was strongly supported by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Argentina becomes the second country in the Americas, after Canada, to approve marriages for gays and lesbians.

Gay rights activists from the United States to Europe who had been following the debate said the approval would help hasten similar measures in other countries.

“I think people will look to it as very important,” Dan Hawes, who oversees organizing nationwide for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said by phone from Washington on Wednesday. “Every win we have gives momentum and hope to people everywhere, including activists in the United States working for the right to marry.”

Tens of thousands of activists — supportive and opposed to same-sex unions — had marched on the country’s 104-year-old Congress building in Buenos Aires. One man, an opponent, quietly held a statue of the Virgin Mary and prayed. Others shouted slogans, demanding that gay couples receive the same privileges and rights as straight couples.

When the final tally was announced, supporters of the measure erupted in cheers.

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