阿根廷游行庆祝同性婚姻突破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."

上周六，成千上万的人参加了阿根廷的同性恋光荣大游行，庆祝阿根廷成为拉美首个将同性婚姻合法化的国家，并宣誓为变性人争取新权益。

阿根廷同性恋、双性恋和变性人联盟主席伊斯特班．保罗说，自从克里斯蒂娜．费尔南德斯总统在7月21日签署了这一法律，已有500多对同性情侣喜结连理。

位于阿根廷首都布宜诺斯艾利斯的同性恋商贸会的创始人帕布罗．德．卢卡说，同性婚姻法的通过有利于旅游业的发展。他估计超过10万同性恋因为这一法律而拜访了阿根廷。

德．卢卡说：“在南非、加拿大和马德里将同性婚姻合法化之后，来访人数也同样增加了。我们想去那些让人无需隐藏自己性取向的国家。”

然而，同性恋情侣依然遭到歧视。尽管现在法律允许他们享有和异性恋夫妇相同的一切权利，但仍有些公务员不愿签署他们的结婚许可文件，同性恋夫妇收养小孩要得到司法体系的批准也很难。

周六游行的主题是“让我们争取更多权利”，具体而言，就是允许个人改变出生证明和身份证上的性别的“性别认同”法。乌拉圭在2009年通过了这一法律，但是在阿根廷，变性人却没有这样的法律可以求助，经常会由于政府文件和自己展现的性别不相符而陷入麻烦。

被提议的这项法律自从2007年提交阿根廷参议院后就迟迟未获通过，不过既然如今同性婚姻法已获通过，有些人对此还是比较乐观的。

社会党议员罗伊．科尔蒂纳说：“同性婚姻法的通过为讨论阿根廷性别越界问题敞开了大门。这将有利于今后性别认同法律的建设。”

Vocabulary:

boon: something that is very helpful and makes life easier for you（非常有用的东西；益处）

recourse: the fact of having to, or being able to, use something that can provide help in a difficult situation（依靠；依赖；求助）

LGBT: 用来指称女同性恋者（Lesbians）、男同性恋者（Gays）、双性恋者（Bisexuals）与跨性别者（Transgender）的一个集合用语。

deputy: the name for a member of parliament in some countries（某些国家的）议员