Gays in Latin America: Is the Closet Half Empty?

Gays in Latin America: Is the Closet Half Empty?

This article from Foreign Policy talks about the opening of Latin American countries to lgbt awareness and rights. Though we're so quick to talk about religion being the reason why some countries haven't embraced the rights of the lgbtq community and those struggles still exist, the situaton in Latin America is quite different. It's actually the politics of the country, with alot of these countries having authoritarian regimes and leftist policies which do not promote globalization, something that other lgbtq movements have embraced. But I also wonder what we, as Americans, can learn from these movements south of the border. This part especially stood out to me.

"Instead, Latin American LGBT movements have overcome their political handicaps by adopting smart tactics. Rather than turning radical and desperate, they have forged pragmatic alliances with larger, more-influential social movements. In Ecuador, for instance, they relied on the much stronger feminist movement to influence constitutional change. Likewise in Brazil, alliances with government officials proved vital to health campaigns. Movements in Argentina, Mexico, and Peru worked with local businesses to develop gay markets."

Maybe if the lgbtq movement in the US wasn't so into themselves and worked more outwardly, we could see more results. I think it's a lesson we could take from our southern counterparts.