ARGENTINA: Court Grants Some Legal Rights To Orangutan Living In Zoo

Via the BBC:

A court in Argentina has ruled that a shy orangutan who spent the last 20 years in a zoo can be granted some legal rights enjoyed by humans. Lawyers had appealed to free Sandra from the Buenos Aires zoo by arguing that although not human, she should be given legal rights. They had argued that she was being illegally detained. If there is no appeal, the ape will be transferred to a sanctuary in Brazil where she will enjoy greater freedom. The singular case hung on whether the animal was a "thing" or a "person". In December a New York State court threw out a request to free a privately owned chimpanzee arguing that the animal was property and had no legal rights.

A local animal rights activist reacts: "This opens the way not only for other Great Apes, but also for other sentient beings which are unfairly and arbitrarily deprived of their liberty in zoos, circuses, water parks and scientific laboratories."

At Buenos Aires Pride 2014

Via the Buenos Aires Herald:

Buenos Aires City yesterday held its 23rd Gay Pride March despite concerns from organizers after Mayor Mauricio Macri’s City Hall refused to take full responsibility for the safety of participants and spectators at what is a public event. Demonstrators gathered at the Congress Square to arrive at the iconic Plaza de Mayo. Around 8pm, the organizerts of the parade read a document. “For more real equality: anti-discrimination law and a secular state,” read the slogan of the march. “We don’t want formal equality. We want to feel equality on the streets, in every province and every part of the state. Never Again to discrimination,” the organizers yesterday said. “The current Anti-discrimination Law was passed in 1998 and it is almost obsolete. The law uses words that no longer exist such as “race”. But the most important problem is that the procedures established to report discriminatory acts do not longer exist,” Julieta Calderón, one of the leaders of the Argentine Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual and Trans People (FALGBT in Spanish). According to Calderón, sexual diversity organizations commonly receive reports of discriminatory practices at work, school and health institutions. The Federation is sponsoring an anti-discrimination bill, which focuses on the idea of gender identity. “But we also want to reflect other forms of discrimination,” Calderón explained.

The photo and second clip below is by JMG reader Brian.

ARGENTINA: Gay Activists To Stage Kiss-In During Visit By Vladimir Putin

The kiss-in will take place today outside the Russian embassy. Source.

Matt Barber Writes For World Net Daily: Eric Holder Should Arrest JMG For Anti-Christian Comments Left On His Blog

Liberty Counsel spokesdouche Matt Barber has posted a World Net Daily column in which he calls for Eric Holder and the federal government to take legal action against me for anti-Christian comments made by alleged JMG readers on a post I wrote about a recent abortion rights rally in Argentina, in which feminists spat upon and sprayed paint into the faces of Catholic men outside a cathedral. After describing the incident, Barber writes:

For liberals, although the means may change, the ends remain the same. Still, equally disturbing are a number of comments posted about the incident on at least one award-winning “gay”-activist blog. Ironically, the site, “JoeMyGod,” a serial Christian-defaming cyber-rag, won the award for “Outstanding Blog” in 2011 at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Media Awards. While Joe Jervis – the blog’s militant atheist and “gay” sadomasochist founder – refused to denounce the Argentinian “hate crimes” outright, he at least begrudgingly admitted: “I really can’t see how this advances the cause of abortion rights.” Ya think? Even so, Jervis, who’s blog has a long history of anti-Christian extremism and violence-charged rhetoric, nonetheless permitted several of his regular posters to not only condone the feminist attacks, but to illegally call for a steep escalation in anti-Christian violence in general (up to and including church bombings, and both the castration and even murder of Christians in the U.S.).

Barber then goes on for several paragraphs to quote these "regular posters" (none of whose user names I recognize) and then he concludes:

Indeed, to borrow from Madonna, it seems Argentina has much to cry for. And so does America. But as for “JoeMyGod,” the question is this: Will GLADD now publicly disavow Joe Jervis for allowing (and perhaps tacitly condoning) such violent (and very likely illegal) rhetoric? Will this self-styled “anti-defamation” group rescind its “Outstanding Blog” award? Don’t hold your breath. Even still, a bigger question remains: Will federal authorities investigate these threats? If it were Christians threatening “gays,” Eric Holder himself would kick-in the door with MSNBC in tow. Every newspaper in America would give it above-the-fold coverage. But it wasn’t Christians threatening “gays.” It was “gays” threatening Christians. And that just doesn’t fit the false “gay victimhood” narrative.

The almost-hilarious hypocrisy here, of course, is that anybody who has EVER endured five minutes on WND knows that they not only allow their own commenters to advocate for the death penalty for homosexuals and that they cheer on violent anti-gay hate crimes, WND columnists themselves have called for executing people who oppose the Christianist agenda, as, for example, when WND's Erik Rush did last year when he declared that journalists should be executed after Mitt Romney won the election. Erik Rush: "Trials for treason and the requisite sentences would apply, and I would have no qualms about seeing such sentences executed, no matter how severe." Earlier this year WND's Erik Rush declared that all Muslims should be murdered and underscored that sentiment with this tweet: "Yes, they're evil. Kill them all." And just last week WND's Erik Rush called for the execution of the president of the United States.

OK, coming back to the world of actual sane people, actual longtime JMG readers are well aware that for the near-decade of this blog's existence, I have posted regular pleas for civility in the comments and have demanded that no one make calls for physical violence against any person or any property for any reason. One of those pleas went up here just a few months ago when I wrote:

As I regularly do, today I again caution you that even the most idle and "jokey" threats of physical harm to any person or property are completely unacceptable on JMG. Also strongly discouraged are expressed wishes of physical harm to others by any means, including natural ones. Please remain aware that JMG comments are often scoured by the enemies of civil equality who look for any opportunity to republish ill-considered reactions to the news reported here. We sometimes see more than 50,000 comments per month and I cannot personally read but a fraction of them. Therefore I must rely on the JMG community to stay self-policing and notify me by email should any comment concern you. Be advised that in many cases these comments are posted by drive-by trolls in order to grab triumphant screen-shots for use elsewhere. You've been remarkably great about observing these very few commenting rules and I thank you for that.

The vast majority of JMG readers have been very good about observing these commenting rules and I thank you for that. And please do continue to alert me if you see any comments like those in today's WND column. As for Matt Barber, I suspected something like this was coming after he suddenly followed me on Twitter a few days ago after years of blocking me from following him. Barber is obviously trying to take revenge on me because I take such delight in cataloging every single loss suffered by the Liberty Counsel. And there have been SO many lately.

One wonders how many tens of thousands of JMG comments Barber had to wade through before he could finally pounce upon the half dozen cited in today's World Net Daily column. One also wonders if Barber didn't plant those comments himself. You'd think Matt Barber would be SUPER busy getting repeatedly smacked down by the Supreme Court or helping the Liberty Counsel with the RICO Act lawsuit which alleges that they abetted the kidnapping of a young girl. Instead, he's got time to troll JMG and cherry-pick a handful of ugly comments. What a sad clown.

NOTE: I've taken down the JMG post cited by Barber rather than deleting the offensive comments. We don't need WND's violently anti-gay readers swarming over here from Barber's link.

NOTE II: It never fails to crack me up when Barber or Porno Pete call me a "leather daddy" or says that I'm "sadomasochistic." Is it the pork pie hat? Where DO they get that?

UPDATE: Barber is pissed that I've blocked his link by taking down my post. Needless to say, if my post was still up, he'd be tweeting "Militant gay refuses to take down post." SNORK!

Updated Global Marriage Map

After last week's first gay wedding in France, the Agency France-Presse posted the above map.

Updated Gay Marriage Map

Source.

Marriage Equality Nations

(Via JMG reader Thomas)

Pope Francis Once Backed Civil Unions

During Argentina's debate on the ultimately successful battle for same-sex marriage, now-Pope Francis urged local Catholic officials to endorse civil unions as a last ditch effort to thwart full equality.

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who led the public charge against the measure, spoke out in a heated meeting of bishops in 2010 and advocated a highly unorthodox solution: that the church in Argentina support the idea of civil unions for gay couples. The concession inflamed the gathering — and offers a telling insight into the leadership style he may now bring to the papacy.

Few would suggest that Cardinal Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, is anything but a stalwart who fully embraces the church’s positions on core social issues. But as he faced one of the most acute tests of his tenure as head of Argentina’s church, he showed another side as well, supporters and critics say: that of a deal maker willing to compromise and court opposing sides in the debate, detractors included.

According to Bergoglio's official biographer, the Catholic endorsement of civil unions (which never happened) was pitched to bishops as "the lesser of two evils."

Quote Of The Day - Cristina Kirchner

"Today is a day of tremendous reparation. Today we do not shout for liberation but instead we shout for equality, which is just as important as freedom. I do not want to use a word that bothers me greatly: Tolerance. No. I do not believe in 'tolerance'. To tolerate is to say I'll allow you to be because I have no other choice. I want to talk about equality and I want to talk about all of you who will now have the same rights I have enjoyed from the moment I was born and the rights that so many millions of Argentinians have enjoyed from the moment they were born. This is the society we want." - Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, at an event marking the new right of transgender citizens to officially change their gender on official documents without proving they'd undergone surgery.

Blabbeando author Andres Duque says the new law, which was passed unanimously by the legislature, makes Argentina the world's most progressive nation for transgender rights. Argentina legalized same-sex marriage in 2010 and it's now quite arguable that they are the world's most progressive nation for LGBT rights overall. Hit the link for video of the above-cited ceremony. It's a beautiful thing even if you don't speak a word of Spanish.

ARGENTINA: Buenos Aires Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage For Foreigners

The city government of Buenos Aires has legalized same-sex marriage for tourists and non-residents. Via press release from Federación Argentina LGBT:

La Federación Argentina de Lesbianas, Gays, Bisexuales, y Trans hails the decision of the municipality of Buenos Aires to eliminate the administrative obstacles that prevented the marriage between two foreigners, a right guaranteed in Article 20 of the Constitution. Thus, the City of Buenos Aires has become the fourth district in the country to authorize such marriages after the provinces of Santa Fe (where Paraguayan activists Simón Cazal and Sergio López were married), Tierra del Fuego, and Buenos Aires. Australian activists Alex Greenwich and Victor Höld were just married this past Friday in the latter province.

Same-sex marriage became legal in all of Argentina in 2010.

Argentina's Pro-Gay President Has Cancer

Kirchner signed the bill legalizing same-sex marriage last July.

Two Great Rights Clips From Argentina

(Via - Blabbeando)

Oppression Spawns Gay Marriage?

New York Times columnist Frank Bruni points to an interesting theory on why same-sex marriage has become legal in some rather unexpected places.

It was only a little more than a decade ago that a country first legalized same-sex marriage, and that happened in precisely the kind of forward-thinking, bohemian place you’d expect: the Netherlands. About two years later, Belgium followed suit. Then things got really interesting. The eight countries that later joined the club were a mix of largely foreseeable and less predictable additions. In the first category I’d put Canada, Norway, Sweden and Iceland. In the second: South Africa, Spain, Portugal and Argentina.

Why those four countries? People who have studied the issue note that that they have something interesting and relevant in common: each spent a significant period of the late 20th century governed by a dictatorship or brutally discriminatory government, and each emerged from that determined to exhibit a modernity and concern for human rights that put the past to rest. “They’re countries where the commitment to democracy and equal protection under the law was denied, flouted and oppressed, and the societies have struggled to restore that,” said Evan Wolfson, the president of Freedom to Marry, a New York-based advocacy group, in a recent interview.

DWTS: Argentina Style

Totally NSFW.

(Source)

ARGENTINA: Trans Rights Campaign Ad

ARGENTINA: Cyndi Lauper Calms Airport

Due to flight delays and cancellations, things were getting quite tense at the Buenos Aires airport. Enter Cyndi Lauper, who commandeered a microphone and performed Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

(Source)

ARGENTINA: Bear Club Attacked

Last week the Buenos Aires Bears Club filed a complaint with the federal government after their meeting space was set ablaze with members inside. Andres Duque reports at Blabbeando:

Club coordinator Gabriel Sánchez tells Tiempo Argentino that on the night of January 15th, as club members and their friends began to arrive to a monthly grill-and-meet event, twenty or so individuals living in a nearby hotel started harassing them and asking them for money. When members refused to give money, Sánchez says that some of the assailants began to shout "You getting together to fuck, fat faggots!" As the tone got aggressive, club members went inside the clubhouse and shut the door. Outside, assailants pulled a discarded mattress and some trash bags against the door and set them on fire. Club members were able to open the door and put out the fire with a fire extinguisher. By then, Sánchez says, the police had arrived and kept guard preventing further violence.

Club members also report being attacked with rocks and bottles and having their cars vandalized, but they say that police have refused to make arrests. A federal official has promised to investigate both the attacks and the police response.

ARGENTINA: Big Brother Producers Reveal Transman Identity Of Contestant

Andres Duque has the backstory at Blabbeando.

Gay Weddings Begin In Argentina

Subtitles by Andres Duque at Blabbeando.

Tweet Of The Day - James Hartline

Oh noes! Hundreds of penguins have dropped dead in shock over Argentina legalizing gay marriage! (You didn't think he'd stop with the anti-gay killer bees, did you?)