Equal Junction

Teachings from the North…

Norway was the very first country to enact an anti-discrimination law protecting homosexuals.

Since January 1, 2009 same-sex marriage has become legal under what is called gender-neutral marriage.  All civil unions and civil marriages became gender-neutral marriages after that date. Talk about EQUAL MARRIAGE! Same benefits and rights for all, even King Harald V of Norway gave it royal assent.

It gets even better…

For families, adoptions are available to same-sex partners. Also, for Lesbian couples, artificial insemination is legal and paid for by the state and the co-habitating, partnered/married Lesbian who is not carrying the child is automatically the other parent once conception has taken place!

Oh hold on…

Gay and Lesbians are allowed to serve openly in the Armed Forces. Way to be Norway!

Photo Courtesy of Wiki Commons

So here’s the deal in Brazil. Civil Unions are allowed in Brazil and have existed since 2004. However, even though same-sex couples have civil unions, they do not have the same legal protections as heterosexual couples.

For adoption, it is legal for Gay and Lesbian couples to adopt children and has been done so since 2006 when a Lesbian couple first adopted a child.

What needs to decrease everywhere, but especially in Brazil is that the S. American country leads in the most Gay murders in the world. According to Grupo Gay da Bahia (GGG, Bahia Gay Group), the number of people who are murdered because they are Gay is up, 198 murders in 2009, compared to 189 in 2008. Brazil leads the world in homosexual victims of murders. Mexico comes second (35 deaths) followed by the United States (25 deaths).

Photo Courtesy of Wiki Commons