In Latin America, LGBT Legal Rights Grow, But Attitudes Shift More Slowly Whitney Eulich - The Christian Science Monitor
go to original May 26, 2016

Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay have legalised same-sex marriage. What explains the advance of gay rights in Latin America, and how far will they spread? (The Economist)

When Mexico’s president announced a proposal to enshrine same-sex marriage in the Constitution last week, he bolstered Latin America's standing as a global leader in promoting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights.

Mexico will become the fifth Latin American country to legalize same-sex marriages, should President Enrique Peña Nieto’s proposal be approved. And it would follow a string of initiatives to strengthen LGBT rights and protections in the region: Ecuador in 2008 approved one of the world’s only constitutions that bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, while Argentina legalized adoption for same-sex couples in 2010, and Chile passed hate crime legislation in 2012.

But while laws have changed dramatically, social attitudes have at times been left to play catch-up.

According to the latest data from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, from January 2013 to March 2014 there were 770 acts of violence committed against LGBT individuals in Latin America, resulting in nearly 600 deaths. And despite all the legal efforts, Latin America has the highest rates of violence against the LGBT community in the world, according to the NGO Transgender Europe.

Read the rest at The Christian Science Monitor

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