The plight of this month’s heroes ultimately turned out to be a great victory for same-sex marriage proponents the world over. Though their story took place in the land-locked, South American country of Paraguay, where same-sex marriage is illegal, the inspiration resulting from their saga knows no boundaries.

According to The Associated Press, Jesus Alejandro Martinez and Blanca Estigarribia were jailed June 13 “on suspicion of having a same-sex wedding.” Let that sink in for a while: a suspected same-sex wedding.

The original wire story indicated “two women passed themselves off as heterosexual for their civil wedding” but “were found out when they tried to have a religious ceremony as well and the priest realized that the groom was still a woman.” It also said, “Catalina Vera allegedly dressed as a man and presented documents with the name Jesus Alejandro Martinez.”

The story further purported that Vera (or is it Martinez?) had plans to become physically male via surgery, but faced up to five years in prison for falsifying documents. Prosecutor Jose Planas said that Estigarribia could have been charged as an accomplice.

A day later, the AP reported that the couple was freed after “a doctor who inspected Martinez in jail ruled that he is a hermaphrodite, with atrophied female genitals and well-developed male genitals.” This begs the question: Is it even possible for a hermaphrodite to be part of a same-sex marriage without wedding another hermaphrodite, or is it always a same-sex marriage by default since hermaphrodites are endowed with both sets of equipment?

Either way, no group of people deserves love and happiness more. Even the staunchest, homophobic Bible-thumpers can’t deny that God really did make them that way.

Martinez, who has some feminine qualities, said he suspected that an ex-girlfriend made the accusatory call to the priest about his/her true gender. We’re not sure why the priest didn’t save everybody the subsequent grief by simply sneaking a peek into Martinez’s trousers, where he would have found his “well-developed male genitals.” Perhaps Martinez was just a bit too old for the padre to make such a personal inspection.

This incident shows why same-sex marriage should be legal. Opponents insist it’s not natural, but with all the androgynes among us, do we really want to live in a world where sex exams are needed before nuptials?

If nothing else, maybe this episode may help convince the folks in Paraguay to legalize same-sex marriage. After all, they’re only one letter away from living in Paragay.