1. Religion and LGBT acceptance

2. See also

3. References

Laws governing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights are complex in the Americas, and acceptance of LGBT persons varies widely. Same-sex marriages have been legal in Canada (nationwide) since 2005, in Argentina since 2010, in both Brazil (nationwide) and Uruguay since 2013, in the United States (nationwide) since 2015 and in Colombia since 2016. In Costa Rica, it will become legal by 2020 at the latest. In Mexico, same-sex marriages are performed in Mexico City and in the states of Baja California, Campeche, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Colima, Jalisco, Michoacán, Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Puebla and Quintana Roo, as well as in certain municipalities in Guerrero, Oaxaca, Querétaro and Zacatecas. Those unions are recognized nationwide.

Among non-independent states, same-sex marriage is also legal in Greenland, the British Overseas Territories of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, all French territories (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Barthélemy, French Guiana, Saint Martin, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon), and in the Caribbean Netherlands, while marriages performed in the Netherlands are recognized in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. More than 700 million people live in nations or sub-national entities in the Americas where same-sex marriages are available.

In January 2018, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that the American Convention on Human Rights recognizes same-sex marriage as a human right. This has made the legalization of such unions mandatory in the following countries: Barbados, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Suriname. Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Uruguay are also under the court's jurisdiction but had already same-sex marriage before the ruling was handed down.

Furthermore, some other nations have laws recognizing other types of same-sex unions (Ecuador, Costa Rica and Chile), as well as LGBT adoption and military service by LGBT people.

However, nine other nations still have criminal punishment for "buggery" on their statute books.^[1] These nine countries are Jamaica, Dominica, Barbados, Saint Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Guyana, the last of which is on mainland South America. They are all former parts of the British West Indies.

Religion and LGBT acceptance

The British, French, Spanish and Portuguese colonists, who settled most of the Americas, brought Christianity from Europe. In particular, the Roman Catholic Church and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, both of which oppose legal recognition of homosexual relationships followed by Eastern Orthodox church,^[2] the Methodist Church,^[3][4] and some other Mainline (Protestant) denominations, such as the Reformed Church in America^[5] and the American Baptist Church,^[6] as well as Conservative Evangelical organizations and churches, such as the Evangelical Alliance. The Southern Baptist Convention.^[7][8][9] Pentecostal churches such as the Assemblies of God,^[10] as well as Restorationist churches, like Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons, also take the position that homosexual sexual activity is sinful.^[11][12]

However, other denominations have become more accepting of LGBT people in recent decades, including the Episcopal Church in the United States, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, the Anglican Church of Canada, the United Church of Canada, the United Church of Christ, the Unitarian Universalist Association, and the Society of Friends (Quakers), and some congregations of the Presbyterian Church (U. S. A.). Most of these denominations now perform same-sex weddings or blessings. Furthermore, many churches in the United Methodist Church in the US are choosing to officiate and bless same-sex marriage despite denomination-wide restrictions.^[13] In addition, in the United States Conservative Judaism, Reform Judaism, and Reconstructionist Judaism now welcome LGBT worshippers and perform same-sex weddings.

See also

• LGBT rights in Europe
• Recognition of same-sex unions in the Americas

References

• Plagiotremus ewaensis
• Plagiotremus goslinei
• Plagiotremus iosodon
• Plagiotremus laudandus
• Plagiotremus phenax
• Plagiotremus spilistius
• Plagiotremus townsendi
• Plagiozopelma
• Plagius
• PLAGL1
• PLAGL2
• Plagmann Round Barn
• Plagne (disambiguation)
• Plagne, Haute-Garonne
• Plagnes lake
• Plagnes Lake
• Plagnole
• Plagodis
• Plagodis alcoolaria
• Plagodis altruaria
• Plagodis dolabraria
• Plagodis intermediaria
• Plagodis kempii
• Plagodis kuetzingi
• Plagodis phlogosaria