December 21, 2007

If you thought getting left in the dust by South Africa was bad….

There has been a recent boon for LGBT people abroad. Uruguay became first Latin American country to legally recognize gay couples.

Uruguay’s Congress legalized civil unions for homosexual couples Tuesday in the first nationwide law of its kind in Latin America.

Under the new law, gay and straight couples will be eligible to form civil unions after living together for five years. They will have rights similar to those granted to married couples on such matters as inheritance, pensions and child custody.

Meanwhile Hungary legalized same-sex domestic partnerships.

Hungary’s parliament passed a law late on Monday that allows same-sex couples to register a civil partnership with many of the rights and obligations of marriage.

Registered couples will have the same rights as married heterosexual couples in inheritance, taxation and other financial matters.

But they will not be allowed to adopt children, unlike married couples.

Most recently in Nepal:

Nepal’s Supreme Court has ordered the government to scrap laws that discriminate against homosexuals.

The court ordered that sexual minorities should be guaranteed the same rights as other citizens.

…..

In their ruling, two Supreme Court judges said: “The government of Nepal should formulate new laws and amend existing laws in order to safeguard the rights of these people.

So what has the USA done for us lately?

They dropped the Hate-crimes bill (a.k.a. Matthew Shepard Act).

“We don’t have the votes,” said one House Democratic aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because conference negotiations on the defense bill were ongoing. “We’re about 40 votes short, not four or six.”

And what about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA)? That passed, sort of. You see, it doesn’t include protection for transgendered people. Apparently the bigots put up so much of a stink over TG individuals having employment protections that they were nixed from the bill. Of course even ENDA-lite still has to get past GWB so it’s not entirely safe yet.

So as other nations march bravely into the 21st century the USA limps along in a continuous struggle against bigots who fight valiantly to return us to the dark ages.

Posted by: Buffy