In 2010, the man just elected to lead the Roman Catholic Church lobbied the Argentinean government in Buenos Aires against a bill to establish same-sex marriage and gay adoption. He lost. President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and gay rights activists everywhere, won.
Argentina became the first Latin American country to approve same-sex unions. Brazil has since followed suit and countries all over Latin America, including my native Chile, have similar legislation pending. With 40 percent of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics living in Latin America, the first Latin American Pope has positioned himself squarely on the wrong side of regional history.
In Africa, the Vatican’s anti-gay position is of particular concern. The continent has seen the largest increase of Roman Catholics since 1970. It has also seen the most-severe and hateful state-sanctioned prejudices against same-sex love. In much of Africa, same-sex sexual activity is illegal. Offenders can be subject to imprisonment, corporal punishment, and even the death penalty. By defining the same-sex unions as “gravely unjust” the Vatican is complicit in these horrific human rights violations on the continent.
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