RIO DE JANEIRO, June 9 -- In an action that gay groups describe as the first of its sort in Latin America, the Brazilian government has extended de facto legal recognition to same-sex relationships by granting such couples the right to inherit each other's pension and social security benefits.

"This decision is historic and unprecedented, not just for Brazil but for all of Latin America," said Toni Reis, director of Dignidade, a gay rights group based in the southern city of Curitiba. "It creates a model and a reference point for other gay movements in Latin America to begin pressuring their governments for recognition of their civil rights."

As the result of new regulations announced on Thursday, applicants who can prove that theirs is a "stable union" will be treated by the National Social Security Institute no differently than a married couple in cases of retirement or death. The policy also allows people in same-sex relationships to declare their partners as dependents on income tax returns.

The government decree, which resulted from a recent court decision, comes while a much broader measure, first introduced in 1995, remains stalled in the Brazilian Congress.

That legislation would formally create "civil partnerships" for homosexual couples who wished to have their relationships recognized by law. But with an election less than four months away, lawmakers aligned with conservative Protestant and Roman Catholic groups are lobbying against it.

"We're cowards when it comes time to decide," said Roberto Jefferson, a congressman who is one of the sponsors of the bill. "Because of a half-dozen religious radicals, the proposal doesn't get voted on."

Catholic Church authorities had no comment today on the decree. But in the past, the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops has condemned the proposed law as "hostile to the Brazilian family," saying that "it is no different from abortion, which though legal in some coutries continues to be immoral."

The legislative impasse illustrates "the state of contradiction in which Brazil lives" in regard to homosexuality, said Cl udio Nascimento, secretary general of the Brazilian Association of Gays, Lesbians and Transvestites. "We have an image of being a liberal country, the country of Carnival and tolerance, but at the same time that we see advances in some areas, there are also attitudes against homosexuality that are deeply ingrained."

Gay rights groups here point, for instance, to the high level of violence against homosexuals and what they say is the impunity enjoyed by those who engage in it. By their calculations, 1,831 homosexuals have been killed in Brazil because of their sexual orientation in the last 10 years, with only 8 percent of the cases having gone to court.

At the same time, Mr. Nascimento said, 77 municipalities have enacted laws prohibiting various forms of discrimination against gay men and lesbians. The conservative city of Juiz de Fora, for instance, recently decriminalized public displays of affection between same-sex couples, with its mayor, Tarc sio Delgado, declaring that his community wanted to be seen as socially "advanced and in solidarity with minorities."

In addition, the state of Rio de Janeiro last month approved a law imposing fines as high as $5,500 against individuals or institutions found to discriminate against homosexuals. The law also permits the authorities to close hotels, restaurants and nightclubs that repeatedly deny their services to gays.

Marta Suplicy, the country's leading sexologist and the member of Congress who was the main sponsor of the original domestic partnership legislation, said the new regulations "increase the chances that my bill can be approved after the elections."

A recent poll indicates that 54 percent of Brazilians approve of some form of legal status for homosexual couples, compared with just 7 percent in 1994.

"This isn't Sweden or Holland, where the rights of homosexuals are totally recognized," said Mr. Reis, the director of Dignidade. "But we are making progress."

Brazil is a socially conservative country: women here did not obtain the right to vote until the 1930's, and divorce was prohibited until the 1970's. But Ms. Suplicy said it would be simplistic to attribute such delays solely to a heritage of machismo and Roman Catholicism.

"Those are the same everywhere," she said today. "It is harder to effect this sort of change in Latin America mainly because the notion of civil rights is not as strongly developed as in Europe or the United States."

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