Last Thursday was yet another remarkable moment from another slice of the globe. A 16-hour marathon session in the Argentine Congress ended with early morning tears and joyous embraces outside the Congressional building. I was filled with pride when I awoke at 4 a.m. to discover that Argentina was now the 12^th country in the world and the first in South America to grant the freedom to marry to same-sex couples. 

Just nine years ago, same-sex couples that wanted to publicly acknowledge their commitment to each other and make a lifetime promise to care for and protect one another had nowhere to turn. With Argentina now on the list of worldwide jurisdictions with the freedom to marry, there are now 250 million people living in places where they will not be excluded from marriage. While this is still just a drop in the water of the nearly 7 billion people living in the world, the progress can no longer be ignored. 

In the build up to the vote, the narrative in Argentina unfolded in familiar fashion. As it became apparent Argentina was on the cusp of doing what was fair—and with public opinion polls revealing some 70 percent of Argentines supported the freedom to marry—anti-gay foes came out in force. They leaned on the same old arguments that have been disproved time and again. As strong gay rights ally Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner discussed, anti-gay forces resorted to scare-tactics, half-truths and anger in their desperate attempt to derail marriage. 

And therein lies the key takeaway—our personal stories will always trump baseless scare tactics. So many fair-minded Argentines supported the freedom to marry because of strong and vocal support from politicians and their personal interactions with gay neighbors, friends and family. That’s the reason baseless scare tactics failed in Argentina and will fail across the nation, as more and more people come into contact with loving, committed same-sex couples they realize that marriage discrimination harms gay and lesbian couples and their families while helping no one. 

Freedom to Marry understands the power of these personal stories and the lived reality across 12 different countries and five states and the District of Columbia in the U.S., that marriage strengthens families and communities. That is why we worked with the Argentine Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Trans (FALGBT), to submit testimony before Congress in the run-up to the historic vote. 

As María Rachid, president of FALGBT told us; the issues that mattered the most to same-sex couples in Argentina are the same ones we are striving for here. She retold the story of Andrea Majul and Silvina Maddaleo, a loving family with three children, who were struggling to makes ends meet because they could not share a health insurance benefit, since both of them could not be recognized as mothers of their children. Then there’s Norma Castillo and Ramona Arévalo, a couple that has been together for 30 years and are just now able to make a public promise of love and responsibility for each other.

María went on to express how overjoyed she was with the ruling:

The moment of sheer joy María describes is one that the entire Freedom to Marry staff is looking forward to as we work on our Roadmap to Victory.