The Global Atlas of late
has been consumed by the tragedy in Boston that affected all of our
contributors directly. Yet while many bad things were happening in the world,
there have been distinctly positive developments on the world stage. In one
realm of human rights where many feared there would never be progress,
especially in more conservative religious societies, major gains were made just
in the last week: France and New Zealand each legalized gay marriage
nationwide, bringing the total number of countries with legalized same-sex
marriage to fourteen. Fourteen out of nearly 200 countries isn’t great,
but consider this: it is a 1,300 percent increase in just the last ten years.
At the beginning of this century, not a single country had legalized
equal marriage rights. Not a single US state had legal same-sex marriage.
Not. One. Now nine have fully recognized equal marriage as well as the District
of Columbia. So 2013, with 14 countries and 9 US states having legalized equal
marriage rights, marks a sea-change from the world in which we were living not
even 15 years ago.
Protests in favor of equal marriage rights in January in Paris. Courtesy of AFP/Thomas Samson
