阿根廷遊行慶祝同性婚姻突破500例
Thousands marched in Argentina's Gay Pride parade on Saturday, celebrating the country's status as the first in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage and vowing to campaign for new rights for transgender people.
More than 500 same-sex couples have been married since President Cristina Fernandez signed the law on July 21, said Esteban Paulo, President of the Argentine Lesbians, Gay, Bi, and Transgender Federation.
The gay marriage law has been a boon for tourism, said Pablo De Luca, founder of the Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce in Buenos Aires. He estimates that 100,000 more gays and lesbians have visited Argentina as a result of the law.
"It's the same kind of increase that happened in South Africa, Canada, and Madrid after they legalized gay marriage," De Luca said. "We want to travel to a country where we don't feel like we have to hide our sexuality."
Gay and lesbian couples still face discrimination -- some civil servants have been unwilling to sign their marriage licenses, and the judicial system has been slow to approve adoptions by same-sex couples even though the law now grants them all the rights heterosexual married couples enjoy. Argentina's dominant Roman Catholic Church remains opposed.
The theme of Saturday's parade was "let's go for more" -- specifically, a "gender identity" law to enable individuals to change their gender on birth certificates and identity cards. Uruguay passed such a law in 2009, but transgender Argentines have no such recourse and often have trouble when dealing with the government using documents that no longer match their expressed gender.
The proposed law has been stuck in Argentina's senate since 2007, but some are more optimistic now that gay marriage has passed.
"The gay marriage law helped open the doors to discuss LGBT issues in Argentina," said Socialist Deputy Roy Cortina. "And that's going to be beneficial for the gender identity law."
上週六，成千上萬的人蔘加了阿根廷的同性戀光榮大遊行，慶祝阿根廷成爲拉美首個將同性婚姻合法化的國家，並宣誓爲變性人爭取新權益。
阿根廷同性戀、雙性戀和變性人聯盟主席伊斯特班•保羅說，自從克里斯蒂娜•費爾南德斯總統在7月21日簽署了這一法律，已有500多對同性情侶喜結連理。
位於阿根廷首都布宜諾斯艾利斯的同性戀商貿會的創始人帕布羅•德•盧卡說，同性婚姻法的通過有利於旅遊業的發展。他估計超過10萬同性戀因爲這一法律而拜訪了阿根廷。
德•盧卡說：“在南非、加拿大和馬德里將同性婚姻合法化之後，來訪人數也同樣增加了。我們想去那些讓人無需隱藏自己性取向的國家。”
然而，同性戀情侶依然遭到歧視。儘管現在法律允許他們享有和異性戀夫婦相同的一切權利，但仍有些公務員不願簽署他們的結婚許可文件，同性戀夫婦收養小孩要得到司法體系的批准也很難。
週六遊行的主題是“讓我們爭取更多權利”，具體而言，就是允許個人改變出生證明和身份證上的性別的“性別認同”法。烏拉圭在2009年通過了這一法律，但是在阿根廷，變性人卻沒有這樣的法律可以求助，經常會由於政府文件和自己展現的性別不相符而陷入麻煩。
被提議的這項法律自從2007年提交阿根廷參議院後就遲遲未獲通過，不過既然如今同性婚姻法已獲通過，有些人對此還是比較樂觀的。
社會黨議員羅伊•科爾蒂納說：“同性婚姻法的通過爲討論阿根廷性別越界問題敞開了大門。這將有利於今後性別認同法律的建設。”
Vocabulary:
boon: something that is very helpful and makes life easier for you（非常有用的東西；益處）
recourse: the fact of having to, or being able to, use something that can provide help in a difficult situation（依靠；依賴；求助）
LGBT: 用來指稱女同性戀者（Lesbians）、男同性戀者（Gays）、雙性戀者（Bisexuals）與跨性別者（Transgender）的一個集合用語。
deputy: the name for a member of parliament in some countries（某些國家的）議員
