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.
