Gay Marriage in Argentina

Apropos a reader’s comment in the New York Times comment forum:

Anyone notice that the leading nations in the World Cup all allow gay marriage or gay civil unions? Spain (marriage), the Netherlands (marriage), Uruguay (civil unions), and Germany (civil unions). I doubt that there’s any causal link here, but it at least shows that the “masculinity” of the men of the nations is unthreatened and uncompromised by letting some men (and women) marry people of the same sex.

Time to add the Maradona-Messi group to the list. Yesterday, Argentina’s Senate approved a measure backed by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner that made it the first nation in predominantly Catholic Latin America to legalize gay marriage.

Proponents are celebrating this as a watershed of modern sensibilities over entrenched, antiquated religious tradition. Mexico City, which authorized gay marriages last year, has offered an all expense paid honeymoon to the first Argentine gay couple to wed. In addition to the stay in Mexico’s capital, the newly weds are also being offered a romantic getaway to Cancun.