However, I think that the majority of Latin Americans still isn’t that permissive of homosexuality though, thanks to the influence of Catholicism or other groups of Christians, and the machismo in Latin culture. Mexico’s president Calderon is a practising Catholic and a staunch social (and fiscal) conservative. Honduras has banned same-sex unions and same-sex “marriage” in their constitution since 2005. It remains a taboo in most other Latin American countries, including in those that have already adopted some form of anti-discrimination laws. Sometimes the situation is rather dubious, with the country having some anti-discrimination laws but the police disrupting gay parades and queers being banned from the military (as it should be).

I suspect that one of the “whitest” and most anti-American countries in Latin America, Argentina, will be one of the first to give queers full legal recognition and grant them the right to marry. Most of the Central American and some Andean countries will probably be the last to do so. I think that in most of these countries there will always remain a significant proportion of the people that will keep opposing it (e.g. Colombia).

In any case, the fact that even these traditionally social conservative countries are now adopting anti-discrimination laws and discussing legal recognition of same-sex couples tells us a whole lot about the times we live in.