Coming Out of the Pension Closet: An Analysis From the Queer Theory of the Rulings of the Supreme Court of Justice in Relation to the Operation of the Survivor’s Pension in Same-sex Couples in Colombia

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of the rulings issued by the Supreme Court of Justice - Labor Chamber and Labor Congestion Chamber - regarding the operationality of survivor pensions in same-sex couples. To achieve this, a qualitative methodology of jurisprudential review is employed to analyze the rules and sub-rules applied by the judges in resolving these cases, contrasting them with certain foundational ideas of queer legal theories. In this analytical exercise, the text elucidates how, within the dogmatic rules devised by the ordinary labor judge, there are emancipatory opportunities that escape the binary gender paradigm. One of the main conclusions drawn from this analysis is the progressive role played by the Labor Cassation Chamber and the Congestion Chamber within labor law, in formulating norms that acknowledge differentiated cohabitation for the acquisition of survivor pensions for same-sex couples.