Gay Old Bogota

At this rate, we're going to be left in Latin America's gay dust, yo!

[I]n Colombia, where Catholicism still reigns and a conservative president is serving an unprecedented second term, gay men and lesbians are closer to getting national legal rights than in any other Latin American nation.

Earlier this year, the country's Constitutional Court ruled that same-sex couples should have the same rights to shared assets as heterosexual couples, a decision that even the Catholic Church supported.

And in June, pushed by a coalition of conservative and leftist congressmen, legislation giving gay unions the same social security, health and inheritance benefits as heterosexual couples passed the House and the Senate…

That legislation, which has conservative President Alvaro Uribe's support, is expected to pass in the coming months.

Colombia is the first Latin American country to move to nationalize LGBT rights. Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Rio Grande do Sul have already legalized same-sex civil unions. Let's hope this movement through Latin America just continues to pick up momentum—and continues to change attitudes toward the LGBT community along with it.

Let's also hope that the US doesn't end up the meat in a retrofuck sandwich, bordered to the north and the south by nothing but countries who are more enlightened than we are.

[Thanks to my girlfriend Miller for passing that along.]