The law recognizes "two people--of any sex, identity, orientation or sexual option--who maintain an emotional relationship sexual in nature, that is exclusive, stable and permanent, without being united in matrimony."

While some states and municipalities in the region, such as Mexico City, Argentina's Buenos Aires and the Brazilian state of Rio Grand do Sul have enacted legal recognitions for gays, Uruguay has become the first Latin American country to legislate same-sex couples at a national level.

The ruling Broad Front Party supported the bill. Opposing it was the National Party, whose deputy chief Alvaro Alonso called it an "institution that runs parallel to a marriage, competing with it even though it is second rate."