Recent Events

In spite of the fact that the police have recently become increasingly repressive as part of a general tendency in Argentine society unrelated to queer issues, there have been positive changes in the new century.

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In 2003 the city of Buenos Aires approved same-sex civil unions. Although civil unions did not provide all the benefits of heterosexual marriage, the law created new possibilities and expectations among members of the queer community.

In addition, during the new century Buenos Aires became a major tourist destination for gay and lesbian travelers across the world. This economic development both energized the local glbtq groups and also served to increase tolerance throughout the country.

In 2009, a judge in Buenos Aires granted a gay couple permission to be married. The couple, Alex Freyre and José María Bello, became the first same-sex couple to be legally married in Argentina. The ruling permitting that marriage applied only to that couple, though subsequently eight other couples were also married as a result of separate judicial rulings.

Meanwhile, legislation that would legalize same-sex marriage nationally advanced in Congress, and a lawsuit that would legalize same-sex marriage was filed for review by Argentina's Supreme Court.

In May 2010, at the urging of President Cristina Fernández, Argentina's House of Representatives approved a marriage equality law. On July 15, after an impassioned debate that lasted almost 16 hours, the law was ratified by the Senate.

The victory in Argentina came after strenuous efforts to derail the legislation by the Roman Catholic and Mormon churches. President Fernández criticized the tone taken by the religious groups, saying that they "recall the times of the Inquisition."

Marriage equality advocate Evan Wolfson issued a statement hailing the historic vote as a measure of how far Catholic Argentina has come, from dictatorship to true democratic values."

Vermont's Civil Union law conferred all the rights, benefits, and responsibilities of marriage on same-sex couples.

Cross-dressers have often been misunderstood and maligned, especially in societies with rigid gender roles.

"Domestic partnership" is the generic term for a variety of forms of legal and institutional recognition of same-sex couples that fall short of same-sex marriage.

Gay and lesbian Latin American artists frequently use their art to portray their desire for sexual and political liberation, often combining traditional subject matter with personal symbols and insights to stress their longing for acceptance.

Although Latin Americans have produced many works that have homoerotic themes or gay and lesbian characters, their sensibilities are largely different from those of North American and European writers.

Lesbian and gay couples have been fighting for the freedom to marry since the dawn of the modern glbtq struggle for equality; despite some success abroad, progress toward same-sex marriage in the United States has been slow.

Miguel de Molina reinvented the Spanish flamenco performance, but his open gayness and gender-bending stage persona provoked hostile reactions that plagued his career.

Homosexual themes and motifs are suggested in a number of Manuel Puig's eight novels, and in the best known of them, Kiss of the Spider Woman, homosexual desire is central to the fiction.