January 29, 2014

Why Is Latin America So Progressive on Gay Rights?

Introduction

Uruguayans celebrate same-sex marriage vote.

Uruguayans celebrate the legislature’s vote last April to allow same-sex marriages. Andres Stapff/Reuters

Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay have moved more quickly on gay and trans rights than the United States and many nations in Western Europe. But it’s not just the left-leaning governments of Latin America that have endorsed these rights, and not all the region’s left-leaning governments have.

So what explains the region’s support for gay rights? Why are the Latin Americans outpacing other regions?

Omar G. Encarnación, a professor of political studies at Bard College, proposed this discussion.

Read the Discussion »

Debaters

High Courts Have Taken a Stand

Omar G. Encarnación, professor of political studies, Bard College

Judges south of the border built on a decision from U.S. Supreme Court, which struck down a ban on interracial marriage.
The Usual Forces, With Surprising Results

Javier Corrales, political scientist, Amherst College

Gay rights have expanded the most in countries whose incomes are highest. Yet income has been neither sufficient nor necessary.
A Region Where Human Rights Causes Resonate

Elisabeth Jay Friedman, author, "Unfinished Transitions"

Movements for sexual and gender rights capitalize on the historical legitimacy of human rights in a region where repression was common.
In the Caribbean, We See Hate Instead

Annecka Marshall, University of the West Indies

In a nation where same-sex intimacy remains illegal, society is denying a fundamental human right: sexual privacy.
In Brazil, AIDS Activism Led to Political Connections

Rafael de la Dehesa, author, "Queering the Public Sphere in Mexico and Brazil"

But the influence of conservative religious politicians and activists is growing. To see Brazil simply as a success story risks undermining its progress.