Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Following In Argentina's Footsteps


Since Argentina voted to legalize same-sex marriage last week, it now seems likely that two of its neighboring countries are on the same path toward full equality to all their citizens.

Gay rights groups in both Uruguay and Paraguay are pushing their respective parliaments to consider bills to give gay couples equal marriage rights.

Uruguay, many say, will be the first of the two to grant equal marriage rights, as the government already allows civil unions, adoption rights for gay couples, the right for gay people to serve openly in the military and grants trans people the option of legally changing their gender.

Wow! Uruguay so progressive and modern while we here in America still sit and ponder and debate and survey any issue regarding LGBT equality.

Diego Sempol of Las Ovejas Negras [The Black Sheep] announced that his group was in very promising discussions with Uruguayan leaders.
Paraguay, on the other hand, seems less likely to make the change, since most of that country's church leaders are speaking out against same-sex marriage before a bill has even been introduced.

A Paraguayan gay rights group, Somosgay, announced this week it would lobby for a bill, but Roman Catholic Bishop Adalberto Martinez promised an "intense educational campaign" on Christian values, while the country's vice-president Federico Franco said man and woman were created to raise a family.

Now that sounds like America.

But I'll stick with Team Uruguay.

3 comments:

  1. let's hope...country by country and then state by state. Although, I wish the damn supreme court would just step in and say screw all of you...It's a HUMAN right and shouldn't be left up to states or voters

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  2. Why is it so many other countries get that lgbt people are, well people and should be have access to civil rights? Think of all the countries that have elected women to their highest office. And here putting a woman on the ballot as only a running mate is ballot box poison.

    What in the hell is wrong with our country? Why are we so woefully backward? Is it only in our way religious groups, or something else that lurks in our collective psyche?

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  3. And these are highly Catholic-countries. I know a few people from Argentina and Uraguay and the way they think is so progressive (for straight people) - they definitely have a different outlook on life and happiness!

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