Way to go Argentina!

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentina became the first Latin American nation to legalize gay marriage Thursday, granting same-sex couples all the legal rights, responsibilities and protections that marriage brings to heterosexuals.

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But it also carries political risks for Fernandez and her husband, former President Nestor Kirchner. The vote divided their governing coalition, and while gay rights have strong support in the capital, anti-gay feelings still run strong in much of Argentine society, where the vast majority of people are Roman Catholic.

"From today onward, Argentina is a more just and democratic country," said Maria Rachid, president of the Argentine Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender federation. The law "not only recognizes the rights of our families, but also the possibility of having access to health care, to leave a pension, to leave our assets to the people with whom we have shared many years of life, including our children," she said.

Quoted from The Huffington Post.

Yesterday was a historic day for Latin America! I am so excited about this expansion of the legal definition of ‘marriage’. A lot of people don’t understand, they write to me and ask “elana are you a closet lesbian?” (No I am not by the way, but I do believe in equal rights!) But it doesn’t matter what our sexuality is, we should celebrate others’ rights to live freely within their own sexuality! I never understood why same sex couples could not legally marry, claim one another on insurance, or adopt. I thought the focus emotion that the world was looking for was love and that compatibility and love defined a relationship? There are so many things in this world, in this day and age, that work against relationships with the desire to separate families and cause us to abandon one another... how can people stand by and allow sexual orientation to be another thing? It does my heart much good to see that people are coming to their senses and realizing that love is love...

Family friends were wed earlier this summer, it was a beautiful ceremony in Ct. I have known both ladies only a short time (maybe a year or two?) but they are perfect together. There is so much love, tenderness, respect, devotion, and passion between them that you cannot help but smile seeing them together. After over a decade committed in their relationship, they were finally able to legalize it. Now, in Argentina, thousands of others will have that right to stand up, tell the world, "This is my Spouse! We are in love and we are together!" Legally, openly, proudly... instead of hiding the gift of their love behind secrets and lies, so they do not lose their children, their jobs, their insurance, and in some cases... their families.

Another way to think about it is that being within the “leather community”, some say that the secret hush-hush place we are now in society is similar to the place the gay and lesbian community was twenty years ago. So if modern day society is progressing to the point of acknowledging their choice in partners, could our choices be next?

Way to go Argentina! I eagerly await news of the first legal marriage, which as of right now is scheduled for August 13th.