Same Sex Policies

Same-Sex Policies
Author’s Name
Institution

Introduction
Same-sex denotes sexually oriented relationships that are characterized by partners of the same sex. Among the women, such people are called lesbians while among the male people they are called gay. This culture was however not found in many states from long ago. Some few states, especially those in Western Europe started the culture. This spread to other many states including Argentina in the recent past centuries. Despite same-sex being accepted, it has encountered a lot of opposition especially from religious groups like the Catholic Church and some conservative forces. Organizations like the United Nations and groups formed like LGBT have pushed for equality of the same-sex people making it possible to evolve their policies in the bill of rights. They still fight against stigmatization and discrimination.
Summary
After Latin America got its democracy back, new social legislation was adopted including same-sex marriage policies. This was tiresome due to the encountered oppositions like from the Catholic Church. Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires, was the first locality to adopt civil union laws in 2002. In 2010, it was among the ten countries worldwide to adopt the same-sex marriage law on a national level (Crocker, 2012). Over the past decade, other Latin American countries adopted the same laws due to the influence of both internal and external developments.
Diffusion is the process by which characters are transmitted.

Many authors have different theories on the diffusion of values. Emanuel Alder thinks it as a cognitive evolution. Everett Rogers thinks socialization facilitates diffusion. Sara Vergari and Michael Mintrom believe communication channels increase the rates of diffusion. Harvey Starr suggests diffusion is due to the presence of a prototype. Diffusion seems to have a connection to regionalism.
The European model was the main external thing that shaped diffusion in Latin American countries. Denmark was the first country to give rights to same-sex partners in 1989 even though it restricted the joint adoption of children which was lifted afterward. It was followed by other countries, and Portugal was the sixth country in 2010. Only a few countries have approved of these laws. Some internal factors that contributed to the policies development include the legislators, courts and the NGO’s. However, the process of legislation was slow due to some reasons which include mobilization beginning at the subnational instead of the national levels, the wrong procedure of mobilization and domestic influences like lack of cohesion and strong oppositions.
Critique
The strength of this article is that the author addresses the topic of same-sex policies diffusion in the Latin American countries in a systematic manner. The author gives a clear picture of its evolution. Further, the article shows the challenges faced when it comes to same-sex relationships like the strong opposition from the Catholic Church and the lack of support from other political leaders. The author’s work depicts how same-sex diffusion went down. She explains the internal and external factors that affected the development of the same-sex policies in the Latin American countries. The author also points out the effects of acceptance of the policies regarding same-sex marriages in the states such as the occurrence of more civil same-sex marriages in Argentina. The article also makes people understand the diffusion of same-sex policies not only in the Latin American countries but also in other countries. Therefore, this article helps in making people aware of rights they are entitled to despite their sexual orientation.
Despite the strengths, this article has a shortcoming since it only uses data of increased civil marriages in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This brings out some bias in the work since we have no other numerical data from other countries of how the acceptance of the policies affected their sexual relationships. Human rights review only in the UN member states shows bias since other countries also have people of the same-sex who were not included in the review. The author should have included more numerical values from other mentioned countries to make it possible for comparison.
Analysis
International organizations and norms have become a major source of the Latin America human rights. The UN has tried in making the LGBT rights become recognized more since everyone is entitled to the same rights without any discrimination. Research in Argentina was undertaken by some organizations that aimed at promoting gay and lesbian rights in the country. It was seen that there was a positive swing towards gender fairness. Despite this, it was still seen that the human rights were not well uniformly echoed.
Just as Denmark in 1989, Buenos Aires also passed the rights of registering same-sex partners but not legislating joint child adoption. This was because such matters were under national jurisdiction law but they echoed in the provincial and local unions. This was solved by expanding the rights. Over the years many movements and groups like LGBT, FALGBT, CHA, and INADI have been formed to support people of all genders to make sure every person enjoyed their rights without discrimination. Amendments to the laws made it possible to accommodate all the people comfortably. The revolution has however not been a smooth ride due to the strong oppositions faced.
As it can be seen, most people opted for civil unions compared to same-sex marriages due to the strong oppositions faced. Some leaders in a country support the same-sex marriage initiative while others don’t. This makes it hard for the bills to be approved by the same government due to lack of cohesion. There are sponsored educational programs and campaigns that are used to reduce discrimination of the people who are not of “normal” sex orientation since the society does not accept such people. They encounter discriminations everywhere, places of work, schools and even in churches. To reduce this, campaigns for discrimination are underway and they are proving to be effective.
Questions
Why are laws concerning same-sex policies put in different ranks in different countries?
Why should people of different sexual orientations feel different if it is well stated in the bill of human rights that we are all equal?
Conclusion
Same-sex is a thing that trended leading to its diffusion worldwide. Argentina was the first Latin American country to accept these policies. Effects including an increase in the number of civil instead of legal marriages were seen after the policies acceptance. This was not easy due to the faced challenges, especially from the religious platforms. The acceptance was affected by both internal and external factors, but the European model was the main one. Many unions and organizations have been formed to fight for the rights of same-sex people fighting discrimination and promoting equality according to the UN bill of human rights. I think the article was educative, and the author did a good job, but she should have included more numerical data to make comparison easier.
Reference
Crocker, A. P. (2012). Diffusion of same-sex policies in Latin America. In Same-sex marriage in Latin America: Promise and resistance. Lexington Books.