Gay sex becomes legal in Panama

[andy]

[img2=left]http://www.gayspeak.com/forum/images/news/panama_flag.jpg[/img2]President Martin Torrijos Espino has decriminalised gay sex in Panama.

On 29th July, President Espino and Health Minister Rosario E. Turner signed a decree repealing a 1949 law that made gay sex an illegal offence that would incur a $500 (£266) fine or a prison sentence.

The decriminalisation came after protests from gay equality group New Men and Women of Panama, the San Fransisco Bay Times reports.

The ban on gay sex was found to be inconsistent with international human rights treaties that Panama has signed, as well as the Panamanian Constitution.

The law was also in conflict with the Health Ministry's policy to 'maintain respect for the sexual preferences of each person, without the existence of any type of discrimination' in the administration of its sexually transmitted diseases programs.

Amnesty International states that there are currently 11 nations in Central America, South America and the Caribbean where homosexuality is illegal.

Those countries are Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.

[marshlander]

Congratulations to the Panamanian government for such a brave and humane decision. It would be wonderful if it started the dominoes falling.

[Shadow]

Whilst I think it will probably take a looooooong time for some of those jurisdictions (particularly Jamaica) to change their laws, 11 out of the large number of countries in that part of the world is NOT BAD !

We work globally, and so we work with (from that neck of the woods) ...

22 countries in Latin America; and
22 countries in the Caribbean

So that's 1 in 4 countries where it's still illegal over there ... which, as I say, isn't good, but it's NOT BAD !!

.

!?!?! Shadow !?!?!

[marshlander]

... So that's 1 in 4 countries where it's still illegal over there ... which, as I say, isn't good, but it's NOT BAD !!

Shadow, I'm shocked! Even if we accept that another government's change of heart is a step in the right direction 25% of people being allowed the fundamental freedom to live and love without fear of personal danger is very bad indeed. I would not like to be living in one of those one in four countries!