MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Uruguayan lawmakers have voted in favor of a proposal to legalize same-sex marriage.

The Senate voted 23-8 on Tuesday in favor of the bill, which would make Uruguay the world’s 12th nation — and the second in Latin America — to legalize same-sex unions.

The bill was previously approved by the lower house of Congress in December.

The measure also allows couples, gay or straight, to decide whose surname goes first when they name their children, breaking with a tradition that has held for centuries across Latin America, where in nearly every country, laws require people to give their children two last names, and the father’s comes first.

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