Last month, we told you about the three men who were slated to become Colombia’s first legal polyamorous family.
And now, the gentlemen are speaking to The Guardian about their upcoming nuptials.
Manuel Bermudez and Alejandro Rodriguez have been together for 18 years.
And their soon to be three-way union is not be the first time the couple found themselves on the frontline in the fight for gay rights.
16 long years before country’s constitutional court would make same-sex marriage legal, Bermudez and Rodriguez would become the very first gay male couple in Colombia to receive formal legal recognition of their partnership, back in 2000.
“Back then the issue wasn’t even debated,” says Manuel.
Then four years ago, Victor Hugo Prada joined the polyamorous partnership.
Speaking of their relationship, he says:
“We want to make what’s intimate, public.
“We have no reason to hide it. We are just helping people realise that there are different types of love and different types of family.”
Bermudez, Rodriguez, and Prada proceed tell The Guardian about their upcoming wedding plans, and how they plan to celebrate their fourth partner, Alex Esneider Zabala, who died of stomach cancer three year ago.
The four of them had planned a ceremony to celebrate their union. But when Zabala died three years ago after being diagnosed with stomach cancer, Prada, Bermudez and Rodriguez realised that a ceremony was not enough. “As much as we considered ourselves a family, we had to fight hard to be recognised as Alex’s partners when he died,” says Bermudez.
The surviving three sought to formalise their relationship through legal means. Rincon-Perfetti, who drew up the paperwork 17 years ago to seal Bermudez and Rodriguez’s union, offered to help. He knows of no other case in the world where a polyamorous relationship between three men has been granted legal recognition.
“There are a lot of throuples but it is completely clandestine,” says Rincón-Perfetti. He said he expects other polyamorous partnerships to seek the same legal status after the media attention on Prada, Bermudez and Rodriguez’s union.
The Guardian adds:
Bermudez and Rodriguez have celebrated their 18-year bilateral partnership in several different ceremonies over the years. But for Prada, the three-way ceremony will be his first and he wants it to be special.
He has asked a female priest to officiate the spiritual part of the ceremony and envisions three dance troupes – representing water, earth and fire – giving each of the grooms away. A fourth – symbolising air – will represent Zabala, the deceased partner.
