The present article reviews the evolution of family studies in Colombia, from the pioneering work of Virginia Gutiérrez de Pineda, noting how in her in- tellectual journey she, shortly before her death, ma- naged to foresee the subject that will become one of the most important emerging research agendas in the study of family issues in recent times: the status of same-sex couples. Through the different concepts and types of family, the article is showing a genealogy of what is constituted as a basis for claiming a right to gay marriage, but also announcing the dissociation that de facto has been occurring between marriage and family.