It’s a new day in Panama, where President MartÃn Torrijos Espino last month signed a decree repealing the nation’s ban on gay sex:
Espino signed a decree July 29 repealing a 1949 law that criminalized sodomy under penalty of a $500 fine or jail time. The move followed protests by the gay group New Men and Women of Panama and other human-rights defenders, local media said. The decree, issued by the Ministry of Health and also signed by Health Minister Rosario E. Turner, said the ban was at odds with the Panamanian Constitution and international human-rights treaties Panama has signed.
It also said the law conflicted 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 operation of its sexually transmitted diseases programs.
Eleven Central American nations continue to prohibit same-sex loving. They are all former British colonies. Shocking.
damascene
11 Central American countries that are former British colonies: There is one Belize. The rest are former Spanish territories.
Darth Paul
^^Queerty got served!
Robert-Chicago
Eleven? Here are the seven nations of Central America:
Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.
Are you thinking about South America, too?
memo60640
I think you meant to include “Caribbean” with your, er, broad description of former UK colonies in Central America…Jamaica heads the list, and you can go down from there.
msim
Not that the Queerty boys need defending; but the Caribbean IS in Central America.
A region isn’t a continent. A hard concept to grasp for some Americans.
CHURCHILL-Y
^ They’re talking about the shithole backwater ape inhabited islands not Nations with a Caribbean coast.
Other than Belize the other Anglophone nation in the mainland American continent south of the US is ape inhabited Guyana another jewel of homopobia and bigotry.
Anyways good to know that Panama decided to join the civilized world, I’m sure you’ll are aware this small step was only possible because of the hispanic population because if the black caribbean migrants in Panama where the overwhelming majority………well you know Hell would’ve frozen before something like this took place.
Moo
Shockingly racist as ever!
chuck
Just as a matter of curiosity, can anyone name a Caribbean nation that isn’t anti-gay?
Robert-Chicago
To: MSIM
The Caribbean and Central America are both distinct regions.
Do you have a reference to support your statement “but the Caribbean IS in Central America”?
Charles J. Mueller
Here is everything you ever wanted to know about Central America, but were afraid to ask. 😉
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_America
It consists of even nations as correctly stated by Robert-Chicago.
Central America, MSIM, does NOT include the Caribbean.
Charles J. Mueller
Correction: even s/b seven