Santiago Bilinkis l Risk and Reward - Trying to live a life out of the comfort zone

I always admired people who, in whatever context, dare to go after what they want -even if that means contradicting what a majority around them expect from them. For example, those who choose to be geologists or artists, when everybody around expects them to become a lawyer. This applies in particular to choosing sexual orientation. To be gay is one of the bravest decisions one can make. Popular belief that states you have to be a real macho to admit you’re gay is a big truth -especially if we associate macho with courage and not with merely exalting manliness, which has nothing to do with courage.

That’s why I think today, the day Gay Marriage has become legal, is a historic day for Argentina. It’s a day when many of the bravest people in the country can get the admiration and respect they deserve for their courage and the struggle they held for years. Today we celebrate that the greatness of the human being lies in diversity and difference, not in over-adaptation or uniformity. In a couple of decades from now, we’ll find it hard to believe that this debate even existed, as much as nowadays it sounds unreal that just 60 years ago women didn’t have the right to vote.

It was a close vote at Congress. This says a lot about a society which is yet distant from embracing diversity. There is still people out there who believe there is only one way to be a husband/wife; one of being a mom/dad. What we learn from this is that legal recognition is just the first step of a process that has just begun: learning to see the world beyond our own eyes.

However, although there are many challenges ahead to leave discrimination behind, today is a day to celebrate. A day to admire the the courage and struggle of those who fought to make this happen. A day to hug each other and feel that we are all different, we are all unique, we are all gay.

Picture: Essygie

Translated by: Palindromic