Tuesday, November 14, 2006

We Are the World

Run your eyes over this list of countries:
Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, Andorra, Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Israel, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Uruguay, and the United Kingdom.

These 25 countries have same-sex marriages or civil unions (also known as domestic partnerships)!

Today South Africa overwhelmingly passed a civil union bill and is set to join this group the beginning of next month, making it the first African country to do so!

In an effort to be fair and thorough, I should also include: the U.S. states of Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, and Vermont; and the U.S. District of Columbia (Washington, DC), Australian province of Tasmania, the city of Buenos Aires and the province of Rio Negro in Argentina, and most recently, Mexico City.

So this is what the world looks like now.

While there is cause for rejoicing, we still need to pray for those who live in countries where they face imprisonment (including life) or even the penalty of death.

1 comment:

Kethryvis said...

I dunno if I'd really put California on that list.. while we are all progressive and liberal, I believe we recognize domestic partnerships however we have the Defense of Marriage Act/Law/whatever that defines marriage as between one man and one woman. I think that as long as those laws exist in certain states, they should not be considered in the same orbit as countries like Canada and South Africa who have gone the full mile and recognized marriage.

But I tend to be a black-or-white gal, notsomuch in the grey :)