MEDELLÍN — After Colombia's social breakthrough last year allowing marriage between two people of the same sex, it has now added one more. The city of Medellín has recently allowed an unprecedented gay wedding for three men. Alejandro Rodríguez, Manuel Bermúdez and Víctor Hugo Prada decided they wanted to legalize their four-year relationship as a "special three-way patrimonial regime," the Medellín newspaper El Colombiano reports, citing local and press agency reports.

The so-called "polyamorous' wedding, held on June 10, was in fact a merging of the three partners' joint patrimony to prevent its dispersion after their deaths. The ceremony consisted of signing a joint declaration before a public notary, and was over in less than an hour.

One of the spouses, Prada, told national broadcaster W Radio that the intention was to protect their collective wealth from inheritance claims by blood relatives, should one of them die. This had happened before with money belonging to another close friend and potential "marriage" partner, Alex Esnéider Zabala, who died in 2015. Prada said there was no will, which made it hard for them to obtain his pension. "This document protects us from anyone making claims."

Prada said he himself had "proposed" to Bermúdez and Rodríguez in 2012, when they were already a couple. Rodríguez has said in turn that "we base our business on living together and solidarity, the three of us. There are no powers here, no roles, you have to negotiate. We are all in this with the same conditions."

A gay rights lawyer Germán Rincón Perfetti, told Agence France-Presse that this was "100% legal" and showed "recognition that there are other types of families."

Same-Sex Marriage Goes Globalpar Worldcrunch