Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on LGBT rights and discrimination in various countries around the world.
Argentina has moved rapidly from a country that used to ban LGBT organizations to a global champion of the community. Favorable conditions and savvy strategies have helped fuel the embrace of LGBT rights in Argentina.
Since becoming the first Latin American country to approve gay marriage in 2010, Argentina has continued to be a leader on LGBT issues, moving forward with an expansion of transgender rights at home while pushing for LGBT rights generally on the world stage. In an email interview, Javier Corrales, the Dwight W. Morrow 1895 professor of political science at Amherst College, explains the factors that have fueled the country’s enthusiastic embrace of pro-LGBT policies.