ARGENTINA: Argentine gay community celebrates Valentines Day

Record ID: 277175

  • Title: ARGENTINA: Argentine gay community celebrates Valentines Day
  • Date: 15th February 2010
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) UNIDENTIFIED HOMOSEXUAL WOMAN, SAYING: "I think it's great. Everyone doing what they feel, it's always love. Nothing else matters, same sex or not, it's always love."
  • Embargoed: 2nd March 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: People
  • Reuters ID: LVACLLZBXCJ4JT2R8K58D9B1PCX7
  • Story Text: Dozens of members of Argentina LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community gathered near the Buenos Aires planetarium to celebrate Valentines Day on Sunday (February 14).
    Dozens of same-sex couples gathered in the park to listen to live music. Several brought massive rainbow flags as a symbol of pride in the gay community.
    One unidentified lesbian woman said that the event was a celebration of love, same-sex or otherwise.
    "I think it's great. Everyone doing what they feel, it's always love. Nothing else matters, same sex or not, it's always love," she said.
    Maria Rachid, the president of the Argentine Federation of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender People, which organized the event, emphasized the importance of equal rights for all Argentines.
    "We are here to see if we advance our cause of judicial equality and equal rights guaranteed by the national constitution of 1853, for all residents of Argentina. We have not been able to guarantee equal rights for everyone yet," she said.
    On December 28, 2009, Argentina made history by being the site of Latin America's first same-sex marriage. After winning a tough legal battle, two men, Alex Freyre and Jose Maria Di Bello, were wed in Tierra del Fuego, in the southern tip of the country.
    Several countries in Latin America, a largely Roman Catholic part of the world, have begun to give more attention to the issue of gay rights. Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador have also been addressing same-sex civil unions, and in September, Uruguay became the first Latin American country to allow same-sex adoption.
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