It is hard to believe, but according to this news roundup from around the Western Hemisphere from Spanish-language U.S.-based news aggregator La Informacion, just one Latin American head of state – Argentina President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner – has come out in support of gay marriage. According to the article, thanks largely to the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, the few that have spoken out are hedging their bets or are decidedly against.
The La Informacion news roundup starts out this way:
President of Argentina Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is the only Latin American leader to openly support gay marriage – an issue that raises passions and has the potential to significantly add or subtract votes.
In 2010, a year before her reelection and almost two years before U.S. President Barak Obama, President Fernández pushed legislation in favor of gay marriage – a legal project that made Argentina, on July 15, the first country in Latin America to do so. With the law, passed on that day, Argentina became a “more egalitarian society,” in the words of Fernández.
Apart from the president of Argentina, few Latin American presidents have spoken on the subject, and those that have are adversaries of equal rights for homosexual couples.
Today Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuño argued against the views of President Obama on promoting the legalization of gay marriage.
“I reaffirm that marriage is a union between a man and a woman,” said Fortuño, president of the Nuevo Progresista Party, who like Obama, seeks to retain his position at the polls this November.
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