Gay groups in Peru seek election alliance in wake of Argentina law

Just had this. Peru has an oil oligarchy, they open the rainforests and sell them off, those who get in the way are put under pressure. The UK government loves Latin Americans regimes that open up their resources to exploitation.

Human rights is not a priority for people like President Alan Garcia. Nonetheless good to see LGBT people mobilising in the country.

Gay groups in Peru seek election alliance in wake of Argentina law

After the approval of gay marriage in Argentina, two homosexual organizations in Lima announced they are seeking for political allies among the candidates running in Peru's 2011 presidential elections, in order to promote gay marriage in Peru.

Jorge Apolaya, spokesperson for the Peruvian Network of Travestites, Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals, told EFE news agency that “it is necessary to pass a law for all those persons that want to access as a couple to legal benefits such as social security, a mortgage, a life insurance or heritage.”

Peru will have presidential and congress elections in April 2011, since Alan Garcia will leave office in July 2011.

"Those who have avoided a public debate about this topic now will have to enter the debate,” Apolaya said.

The only presidential candidate who has openly approved gay marriage in his government plan is TV host and writer Jaime Bayly, but private polls reveal that 73% of Peruvians are against these unions.

Apolaya says that marriage “cannot be a heterosexual privilege” in a country where “there is allegedly an equality of rights for all citizens.”

Argentina became the first country in Latin American to approve gay marriage following a 14-hour debate in the senate (gay marriage has been legal in Mexico City since 2010).

http://www.livinginperu.com/news/12678