Argentina's Senate debates gay marriage law

Argentina's Senate is debating a proposal to legalise gay marriage. The country's Chamber of Deputies has already approved same-sex marriage and has now sent the legislation to the Senate for approval.

The law, which would also allow same-sex couples to adopt, has met with fierce opposition from the Catholic Church and other religious groups. Thousands protested outside Congress as debates took place inside.

At Sunday Mass, people were urged to protest on the eve of the vote by senators on whether to legalise gay marriage in the country, according to BBC News.

"I came to defend marriage between man and woman, because I think any attempt against this is an attempt against natural law," said Angeles Navarro, one of the protesters.

There has been a number of gay marriages recently in Argentina, some of which were annulled by the Supreme Court, creating a legal controversy.

"Same-sex families already exist, gay families already exist, so the task that they (the senate) will have... is to legalise the situation of all those families," said one protester.

Civil unions between people of the same sex are legal in the city of Buenos Aires and in some other provinces but there is no law which regulates it on a country-wide level.

President Cristina Fernandez has stated that she would not veto the measure if it arrived in her office.