Gay Pride at the Women's World Cup

The United States women’s national team is advancing to the semifinals of the  World Cup. There’s two elements to this: one, a tenacious defense that looked like they had decided on “death before dishonor” as their ethos for this game, and gay heartthrob Megan Rapinoe.

Rapinoe dropped two goals on France over the course of a tense game played out in the sticky heat currently swamping Paris. The first was an early wonder, the ball somehow scooting through a sea of legs and into the goal.

The second was a well-worked ball that exposed a giant lapse in the French defense as Alex Morgan played in Tobin Heath, whose pass cut across the box found Rapinoe as open as Julie Andrews larking through the hills of Austria.

If you couldn’t believe how open Pinoe was, neither could she. “I was like this is not falling to me right now,” she said in the mixed zone. “I actually had so much time to think I was like oh my god, just bang it home.”

She did bang it home, and with Wendie Renard snatching a header back for France, it ended up being the game winner. That’s particularly satisfying for Rapinoe fans who spent this week basically telling a certain someone to keep Rapinoe’s name out of his mouth. Rapinoe didn’t mention him by name at all in the mixed zone though, even when asked if it felt particularly good to emerge as one of the heroes of this game after being disparaged by a high profile idiot.

“I think there’s always satisfaction,” she said of her goals and the win. “I don’t really get energized by haters or all that. I feel like there’s so many more people who love so I’m like, hey, you love me, this is great. I’m more energized by that.”

In fact, it meant more to Rapinoe that this performance came during LGBTQ Pride Month, and the night before the Paris Pride march.

“You can’t win a championship without gays on your team, it’s pretty much never been done before ever. Science, right there.” She grinned as she said it, perhaps only halfway facetious.

Rapinoe added, “I think, not the haters, but yeah, I’m motivated by people like me and people who are fighting for the same things and I take more energy from that than trying to prove everyone wrong all the time. That’s sort of draining to me. So yeah, to be gay and fabulous during pride month at the World Cup is nice.”

Gay: check. Fabulous: big double check. From Megan Rapinoe to all the queer soccer fans out there, that one was for you.

Growing Rights In Some Countries And Worsening Or Removal of Rights In Others

There seems to be a link between growing rights for LGBT's in some countries and worsening or removal of rights in others. Every advance seems to be accompanied by a backlash. To a certain extent that is what is happening on a global scale now--the advances that are being made in some parts of the world encourage a backlash in other parts of the world.

There are more than 75 countries where homosexuality is still criminalised. Forty-two of them are former British colonies so we can see where the legacy comes from. The number of countries legalising same-sex marriage continues to grow, with Denmark, Brazil, France and New Zealand just some that joined more progressive countries that had legalised earlier.

There are some places in the world where LGBT rights are worsening. In Iran, a place where homosexuality is punishable by death, this year the country's official who works on human rights described homosexuality as "an illness that should be cured". Gay rights are no better in many other Middle Eastern countries. There are 28 African countries where homosexuality is illegal.

Parts of Latin America remain the standard for equality for LGBT rights. Argentina's Gender Identity Law 2012 allowed the change of gender on birth certificates for transgender people. It also legalised same-sex marriage in 2010, giving same-sex couples the same rights as opposite-sex couples, including the right to adopt children. Uruguay and Mexico City also allow equal marriage and adoption.

In Asia, LGBT groups are making progress, if slowly. Last year, Vietnam saw its first gay pride rally and this year's event will launch a campaign for equality in employment. There is rumour that the country's ministry of justice has backed plans to legalise gay marriage, after the ministry of health came out for marriage equality in April.

In Russia, gay rights are moving further away from other European countries. Gay teenagers are being tortured and forcibly outed on the Internet against a backdrop of laws that look completely out of step with the rest of Europe. In what is being described as rolling the "status of LGBT people back to the Stalin era", President Putin has passed a number of anti-gay laws, including legislation that punishes people and groups that distribute information considered "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations". The country also now has powers to arrest and detain foreign citizens believed to be gay, or "pro-gay".

We have a US president who supports gay marriage, and now a pope who, if not exactly signing up to equality for all, is at least starting to talk in language less inflammatory than his predecessor. "If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has goodwill, who am I to judge?" he told an assembled group of journalists on the papal plane back from his tour of Brazil. Then he went on to criticise the gay "lobby" and said he wasn't going to break with the catechism that said "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered". Still, for a brief moment it looked like a minor breakthrough.

There is a widening gap currently between those places in the world where strides are being made for equality and those where a raft of anti-homosexuality legislation is coming into force. Perhaps the dichotomy is inter-connected whereas one movement moves toward improvement the other is proportionately challenged. There is no denying that whether positive or negative, the energy around homosexual equality is running high. Who knows where we will end up?

Where In The World...

Today, almost 40% of Americans live in a place where same-sex couples can marry. At the moment, the United States is a bit of a patchwork quilt and is rapidly adding states that allow same-sex marriage. A same-sex couple who had married, say, in Massachusetts, can go on a trip with their children, wander through a number of states briefly enter Canada, and change their marriage status repeatedly.

In the U.S. in some places they would be regarded as married. Or they might be recognized as being in a civil union and having full state rights but no federal marriage rights. Or they could be recognized as being in a domestic partnership or some type of beneficiary relationship. They would have some state rights, but no federal marriage rights.

Married same-sex couples can find themselves being temporarily divorced against their will, considered roommates, having their children regarded as illegitimate, having no guaranteed access to each other if one enters a hospital unable to make medical decisions if their partner is incapacitated. Most states do no recognize same-sex relationships—even if the couple was legally married elsewhere. Such couples are regarded as “legal strangers” – as mere roommates. Loving, committed couples need to plan their vacations carefully in case they have a medical emergency or other problem.

In different countries in the world, holding a same-sex marriage ritual can involve anything from a great celebration to a risk of arrest, trial and execution. The latter is the law in six predominately Muslim countries. 17 countries have legalized (or are about to legalize) same-sex marriage in the world as of February 2014.

In the year 2000, in the Netherlands, gay and lesbian couples, who were either citizens of the Netherlands or who had residency permits, were able to marry and adopt. This was the first country in the world to make same-sex marriages available.

In 2003 Belgium said same-sex couples that were residents or citizens could marry, but cannot yet adopt.

In 2005 in Spain the country legalized same-sex marriage.

In Canada since 2005 all loving, committed couples—both same-sex and opposite-sex have been able to marry in nine out of ten province and in all three territories of Canada. Both same-sex and opposite-sex couples can marry in Canada whether they are Canadians or citizens of another country if they meet the age and genetic requirements. Late 2009 public opinion polls indicate that about two in three Canadian adults approve of marriage equality. The topic is very rarely discussed in the media.

In 2006 South Africa legalized same-sex marriage.

In Norway same-sex couples have been able to marry since 2009.

In Sweden legislation was overwhelmingly passed by Parliament to marry same-sex couples, which took effect in May 2009.

Mexico City became the first jurisdiction in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage on December 21, 2009.

In Ushuaia, Argentina, the southern-most city in the world saw the first same-sex marriages in Latin America.

Amazingly, Portugal, in which 97% of the population identifies with the Roman Catholic Church, legalized same-sex marriage in 2010.

In Iceland in 2010 the first same-sex couple to be married was Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir and her long-time female partner Jonina Leosdottir.

Argentina faced intense opposition from the Roman Catholic Church and evangelical Christian groups but signed into law same-sex marriage in 2010.

India married its first same-sex couples in July 2011 by a court in Haryana, close to New Delhi.

Brazil’s National Council of Justice ruled that notaries public must perform same-sex marriages, register same-sex marriages performed elsewhere, and convert same-sex civil unions into marriages when requested. This decision effectively legalizes same-sex marriages across the country effective May 2013.

In June 2013 France, New Zealand and Uruguay approved same-sex marriage.

Same-sex marriage was legalized in England and Wales July 2013 and was made available in March 2014.

Same-sex marriage was legalized in Scotland February 2014.

Israel is unique in the world, in that many of its citizens are unable to marry within their own country. Marriages in Israel are performed under a “confessional community” system. There are a total of 15 recognized religious communities, none of which recognize same-sex marriage. Jewish couples must be from the orthodox community in order to be eligible to be married in the country. Reformed Jews, Jews from other traditions, couples from an unrecognized religious community, and couples who are unaffiliated with any religion cannot marry in Israel. They must leave the country, get married elsewhere, return to Israel, and register their foreign marriages. Due to a loophole in the law, this applies also to same-sex couples. However, although same-sex couples can register their marriages, their registration carries no legal weight.