Argentina legalized same-sex marriage Thursday, becoming the first country in Latin America to grant gays and lesbians all the legal rights, responsibilities and protections that marriage brings to heterosexual couples.
After a marathon debate, 33 lawmakers voted in favor, 27 were against it and 3 abstained in Argentina's Senate in a vote that ended after 4 a.m. Since the lower house already approved it, and President Cristina Fernandez is a strong supporter, it now becomes law as soon as it is published in the official bulletin.
The law is sure to bring a wave of marriages by gays and lesbians who have increasingly found Buenos Aires to be more accepting than many other places in the region.
The approval came despite a concerted campaign by the Roman Catholic Church and evangelical groups, which drew 60,000 people to march on Congress and urged parents in churches and schools to work against passage.
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio said "everyone loses" with gay marriage, and "children need to have the right to be raised and educated by a father and a mother."
Nine gay couples had already married in Argentina after persuading judges that the constitutional mandate of equality supports their marriage rights, but some of these marriages were later declared invalid.
More here.
However, an online buddy of mine sent me a link to an interview of an old enemy of the lgbt community. To some, using the word "enemy" may be too strong but I think it's appropriate to describe Dawn Stefanowicz.
Stefanowicz is a Canadian woman who claims that she was raised by a gay father who subjected her to the abuse via the so-called gay subculture. She has written a book and, from time-to-time, travels to different places speaking out against marriage equality and gay adoption. I say there are a lot of problems with her story, specifically if it is true, how can she say that her "experience" is indicative of all same-sex families.
She gave an interview with a newspaper in Argentina and it is, as expected, extremely anti-gay:
Some moments:
. . . there is a lot of gay pornography used in same-sex relationships and children are at high risk of being exposed to this within the home and the subcultures where parents and partners are affiliated. Based on ample research (...) I believe there is a higher risk of sexual abuse for children raised connected to the GLBT subcultures."
Editor's note - Stefanowicz does not provide this research.
. . . the GLBT subcultures do not look at marriage in the same way. Marriage has always been considered a traditional, man-woman institution which upholds monogamy for the benefit of children and society. The GLBT subcultures have a much broader understanding of sexual relationships and do not like restrictive boundaries which limit number of sexual partners, diverse sexualities, gender identities, roles, and expressions.
. . . When same-sex marriage is legalized, this action permanently redefines not only marriage, but also spouse, gender, parent, and family. Same-sex marriage automatically replaces natural parent with legal parent, allowing the state to usurp parental rights at anytime. Consequently, all biological natural parents are diminished to just legal parents, having the same parental rights as same-sex parent's partners who have no biological tie to the child(ren). Parenting is reduced to a legal status only, involving care giving duties, legal responsibilities, and, progressively invasive state laws. I don't think many Argentinean parents will be particularly thrilled with their permanent loss of natural parent status.
Like I said before, regardless of whether or not there is verification of Stefanowicz's story, she has no right to make unfair blanket judgments on all same-sex households.
Related posts
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Dawn Stefanowicz again?
Dawn Stefanowicz's book: Homophobia defined
1 comment:
Of course, children of heterosexual parents are never abused!
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