A Little Haven of Sanity and Progress

[darkeyes]

South America often gets a bad press on social issues and is often not considered the most socially progressive continent on this earth.. and yet from the Argentine we find this...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10823279

So at least there is one more haven of sanity for such as us in South America...

[Long Duck Dong]

read about them legalising same sex marriage the other week......

after the big fight in nz, to gain the rights to same sex marriage, I think we have about 130 couples ( lgbt and straight ) that have actually used the civil union right to be married.....

kinda makes me wonder a lot, if its more about having the right, rather than actually marrying....... either way.... having the right is far better than not have the right

[darkeyes]

It shouldnt matter whether one or 10000 same sex couples tie the knot.. what matters is that if that they can.

In the UK something like 35000 same sex couples have entered into same sex unions since it was made legal in 2005. I believe in England and Wales more male couples than female and in Scotland quite the reverse.. I can't say about Northern Ireland. Figures have been falling of couples deciding to enter into a legal same sex union, but that shouldn't detract from the fact that they exist and should exist.. the argument whether or not they should be called a marriage is important to some, and I know of at least two couples who will not enter into a union because it is not called a marriage. I also know of a further couple who, being religious, will not enter a legal union until they are able to do so in a church. Such people will depress the figures because of how they think and what they believe. My own view is that it is a moot point. A civil union in the UK has exactly the same status as a marriage in law, with both partners receiving the same rights and benefits as any married heterosexual couple, and is to all intents and purposes just that. Most of us refer to it as marriage in any case because that is just what it is.

Where UK same sex couples are at a disadvantage with married heterosexual couples is should they choose the move abroad, where countries which do not recognise same sex unions do not recognise UK civil partnerships in law. An unfortunate aside is that UK same sex couples where one partner is American and married or entered into a civil partnership in a state of the USA, the non British partner has right of abode in the UK. The same does not happen in reverse where one partner is British and the other American when a civil union has been entered into in the UK.

[MarieDelta]

Thanks for that positive note , Fran.

Its nice to think that progress is being made somewhere in the world.