I've been thinking about this a lot, but I still don't know exactly how I feel about the whole debacle.
Marriage...marriage is something sometimes quite subjective. But, on a legal realm it offers a lot of recognition, visibility and validation for the LGBTI population in every city in every country accross the globe. However, isn't this really just a huge distraction? Don't get me wrong, it's probably very important for a lot of people, but since the whole equal rights movement is on different levels in each country, we need to learn to prioritize in order to combine our efforts and work together.
For instance, here in Latin America, particularly in Colombia we are REALLY behind in the times in terms of respect, acceptance and most important, understanding. Here, in Colombia, there's still a lot of work to be done in order to transform people's minds about what it really means to be Trans*, gay, bisexual, lesbian, not to mention, most people I know and talk to have never even heard of Pansexuality or Polisexuality or Asexuality. There is no translation in Spanish for the term Cisgender. So, of course educating people is key, but not just on sexual and gender diversity, but on a lot of injustices that continue to happen daily in my country, simply because there are no guarantees.
So, gay marriage? Really? When the vast majority of Trans* women in my country are kicked out of their homes and forced to work either as prostitutes (which would not be a problem if it were legal and didn't involve so many risks) or in the hair styling industry. We need to start working on ensuring a safer future for all of us under the rainbow, and work together to achieve that. However, in order to do that, we need to start from the bottom up, not the other way around. Therefore, legalizing gay marriage in my country would only favor a very small, privileged minority within a minority. There's my two cents on the whole thing. What do you think?
Marriage...marriage is something sometimes quite subjective. But, on a legal realm it offers a lot of recognition, visibility and validation for the LGBTI population in every city in every country accross the globe. However, isn't this really just a huge distraction? Don't get me wrong, it's probably very important for a lot of people, but since the whole equal rights movement is on different levels in each country, we need to learn to prioritize in order to combine our efforts and work together.
For instance, here in Latin America, particularly in Colombia we are REALLY behind in the times in terms of respect, acceptance and most important, understanding. Here, in Colombia, there's still a lot of work to be done in order to transform people's minds about what it really means to be Trans*, gay, bisexual, lesbian, not to mention, most people I know and talk to have never even heard of Pansexuality or Polisexuality or Asexuality. There is no translation in Spanish for the term Cisgender. So, of course educating people is key, but not just on sexual and gender diversity, but on a lot of injustices that continue to happen daily in my country, simply because there are no guarantees.
So, gay marriage? Really? When the vast majority of Trans* women in my country are kicked out of their homes and forced to work either as prostitutes (which would not be a problem if it were legal and didn't involve so many risks) or in the hair styling industry. We need to start working on ensuring a safer future for all of us under the rainbow, and work together to achieve that. However, in order to do that, we need to start from the bottom up, not the other way around. Therefore, legalizing gay marriage in my country would only favor a very small, privileged minority within a minority. There's my two cents on the whole thing. What do you think?
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