BOGOTA, COLOMBIA – Last week, Colombia’s highest court granted the right to same-sex couples to inherit their partner’s pension fund and compensation packages.

The ruling by the Constitutional Court said that gay couples meet the legal definition of a “family,” which gives them the same protections and access to their partner’s legacy as for heterosexual couples.

The surviving partner must need only offer proof of prior cohabitation.

In its decision, the court noted “The part of the Constitution that treats the concept of family as solely the union between a man and a woman is blatantly wrong, because the family bond is achieved from a variety of diverse situations including the free will to form a family, regardless of the gender or orientation of its members.”