LGBT Rights In South America
Laws governing Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights are complex in the Americas, and acceptance of LGBT persons varies widely. Same-sex marriages have been legal in Canada nationwide since 2005, in Argentina since 2010, and in Brazil nationwide since 2013. Same-sex marriage in Uruguay will become legal on August 1, 2013. Same-sex marriages in Mexico City are recognized nationwide, while in the United States, same-sex marriages are recognized by several states, but not the federal government. Same-sex marriages are legal in the Caribbean Netherlands, while marriages performed in the Netherlands are recognized in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten.
Furthermore, some other nations have laws recognizing other types of same-sex unions, as well as LGBT adoption and military service by LGBT people. However, eleven other nations, all of them in the former British West Indies, still have criminal punishment for buggery on their statute books. These eleven countries include Jamaica, Dominica, Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia, Antigua & Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada Saint Kitts and Nevis & Belize.
Read more about LGBT Rights In South America: Religion and LGBT Acceptance, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words south america, rights, south and/or america:
“Indeed, I believe that in the future, when we shall have seized again, as we will seize if we are true to ourselves, our own fair part of commerce upon the sea, and when we shall have again our appropriate share of South American trade, that these railroads from St. Louis, touching deep harbors on the gulf, and communicating there with lines of steamships, shall touch the ports of South America and bring their tribute to you.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government? Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“...I always said if I lived to get grown and had a chance, I was going to try to get something for my mother and I was going to do something for the black man of the South if it would cost my life; I was determined to see that things were changed.”
—Fannie Lou Hamer (1917–1977)
“If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it is wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black babies and black men, then it is wrong for America to draft us, and make us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us, and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this country.”
—Malcolm X (1925–1965)