We're Expanding to Latin America

          Africa has seen so much progress in the realm of LGBTQ rights over the past decade. The death penalty, while still on the book in a few countries, is only ever applied to LGBTQ people in territory controlled by terrorist group al-Shabaab, which is growing weaker by the month. Nations like Angola, Namibia, Gabon, and Botswana have repealed laws that criminalize LGBTQIA+ people, and every mass arrest made in the name of hyperreligious hatred in places like Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania now garners international outrage and global views shift in favor of human rights. When even nations like Morocco and Tunisia want to protect people persecuted for their sexual orientation, we have no reason to give up hope as we fight for change.

     Needless to say, more work remains to be done. However, with all the momentum seen in Africa, it is time to expand our efforts to include Latin America, and, more broadly, to the Americas as a whole. In Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Guyana, old laws criminalizing same-sex sexual activity remain on the books but are not enforced; in Grenada, the last nation in the Americas to enforce these laws, such enforcement happens very rarely. In countries like Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, and Venezuela, same-sex marriage is constitutionally banned. In other nations, youth are subject to conversion therapy and state-sanctioned violence while discrimination and hate crimes go unpunished.

     However, this is beginning to change. Decriminalization has been proposed in virtually every nation that still criminalizes same-sex relations. Court decisions and/or legislation could soon legalize same-sex marriage or civil unions in Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Barbados, Cuba, Curaçao, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Peru. Nations are beginning to strive for full LGBT2SQIA+ equality where a decade ago regression was popular progress. If revolution can take place in the United States and Western Europe, then evolution that has been seen in Africa can certainly be mirrored by a similar revolution in Latin America.

     Later this year, we will update our website to include organizations, petitions, videos, and other actions focused on Latin America as well as Africa. The world has come so far, and we need to continue the push for dignity and for justice.