Ensuring Marriage Equality

The World's Worst Places to Be Gay (x)

Takepart has created the above info-graphic outlining the "World's Worst Places to Be Gay." Of 196 nations on the planet, 79 have deemed homosexuality illegal. The scope of how states treat same-gender relations is varied. Some governments posses laws that are discriminatory and limiting whereas other nation's policies can seriously endanger their LGBT citizens. The map depicts four types of treatments by the state and these include: "Red: Countries where homosexuality can lead to imprisonment," "Yellow: Countries where there are some anti-gay laws that don't allow same-sex marriage," "Green: Countries that have a type of legal marriage, union or partnership. In some places it's recognize but not performed" and "Countries where same-sex marriage is legal." A red nation would be Nigeria for in some regions a person who is found to engage in same-sex relations can be stoned to death. A less extreme version of this queerphobic injustice would be in a yellow nation like Chile where civil unions are accepted but same-sex couples cannot adopt children or in the green area of the United States where some states don't recognize same-sex marriages and couples can't receive tax benefits.  Takepart quotes Kaleidoscope Trust's Alistair Stewart who finds “The struggle for even basic human rights for LGBT people—freedom of association, freedom from violence—becomes harder to achieve when the opponents can point to something like gay marriage…and make the argument that ‘if we give these people even the most basic of human rights, next they’ll be asking to get married in our churches."

 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights indirectly addresses queer individuals in Articles 2 and 16 which state "Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind" and "Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution."

Sources

The World's Worst Places to Be Gay