Mexico City Legalizes Gay Marriage!
December 22, 2009 by Jason Shaw
It looks as though Maggie Gallagher may be wrong in her pompous assumption that marriage equality is not inevitable, as same-sex marriage has just become legal South of the boarder as well.
From Jason Shaw:
Mexico City has become the first city in Latin America to legalise gay marriage, giving same sex couples a lot more rights, including allowing them to adopt children. The bill was passed the capital’s local ruling assembly by 39 votes to 20 on Monday 21 December, the city’s mayor, Marcelo Ebrard, of the Democratic Revolution party, had been tipped for some time to sign the measure and make it into law.
The bill called for a change of the definition of marriage in the city’s civil code, it’s was defined as the union of a man and a woman, the new wording will be “the free uniting of two people”. This amendment will enable gay couples to adopt, apply for bank loans, inherit wealth, be included in the insurance policies of their partner, all rights that were denied under the cities civil union laws.
“We are so happy,” said campaigning film student,Temistocles Villanueva, outside the city assembly after the law was passed, similar thoughts and sentiment was expressed by gays and lesbians all over the city.
“For centuries, unjust laws banned marriage between blacks and whites or Indians and Europeans. Today, all barriers have disappeared.” Said Victor Romo from the DRP in a statement.
However, Armando Martinez, the president of the College of Catholic Attorneys, complained that politicians had “given Mexicans the most bitter Christmas – They are permitting adoption and in one stroke of the pen have erased the terms mother and father,” he said.
Buenos Aires, the Argentine capital was the very first Latin American city to legalise same sex civil unions for gay and lesbian couples back in 2002. It took a while, but in 2007 four other Argentine cities did the same. Mexico City was the first city in Mexico to introduce a similar civil union for same sex couples in the same year, 2007.
However, many people in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America remain opposed to gay marriage, and the Roman Catholic church has announced its opposition, as has the National Action party, led by the Mexican president, Felipe Calderón.
Mexico City is perhaps one of the most liberal and enlightened of the major Latin American cities, where homosexuality is increasingly accepted in Mexico. The annual gay pride parade attracts tens of thousands of people each year and the city has a vibrant gay scene.
Jason Shaw, Brighton. England.
Jason’s own blog is The Seafront Diaries!
[...] of the major implications of the new law is that it permits gay and lesbian couples to “adopt, apply for bank loans, inherit wealth, [...]
“They have given Mexicans the most bitter Christmas,” Armando Martinez, the president of the College of Catholic Attorneys, was quoted as saying in the Associated Press. “They are permitting adoption [by gay couples] and in one stroke of the pen have erased the term ‘mother’ and ‘father.’ “
WTF is this guy smoking? If gays adopt children then there aren’t going to be anymore heterosexual couples having babies?
And yea this sure is a lousy thing to do right around Christmas, allowing children who don’t have a home to be adopted by two people that want children.
Is it to much if I ask Santa to give this guy a brain for Christmas?
No, but see, this is what they prey upon…The undereducated who fall into the trap of believing this BS, because the hateful rhetoric these guys spit out scares the hell out of them. They want everyone to think that heterosexual parenting will become a thing of the past if gay couples adopt because straight couples will simply stop wanting children if gay people adopt. Don’t you get it?
All is good here. It’s more progress than in NY and NJ. I’m looking forward to spending some cash in Mexico City in 2010.
I find it hilarious that a third world country is more progressive than America.
Another nail in NOMs coffin.
My husband and I want to move out of this area, I would prefer someplace like Mexico city that is more fair-minded than our overcrowded state.
“Another nail in NOMs coffin.”
I’ll be more than happy to supply a box full of nails if it gets Maggie the tree stump to shut up.
~”“given Mexicans the most bitter Christmas – They are permitting adoption and in one stroke of the pen have erased the terms mother and father,”” ~ Armando Martinez [the president of the College of Catholic Attorneys]
Ah, irrational hyperbole. So typical. If same-sex couples marry, then ‘marriage is destroyed’. If same-sex couples adopt, then ‘mother and father are destroyed’. If homosexuality is tolerated, then ‘God will take his protective hand from the nation’. And if homosexuals are given the sort of dignity and respect that heterosexuals are, It’s Armageddon folks!
I would say, what is some guy from a Catholic organization meddling in the affairs of State, but then this is Mexico we’re talking about here — no separation of church and state that I am aware of. Ah, but then I think to here in the U.S., with the influence of the Mormon church and the League of Catholic Bishops… Or bigots like Bishop Harry Jackson. Apparently we don’t have a separation between our church and our state, either.
I’m happy for the residents of Mexico City. How shameful for us in the United States that so many other countries are turning out to be the leaders on equality for their homosexual citizens, while here we have popular sovereignty — where mobs of ‘common folk’, so long as they are in the majority, can just arbitrarily vote down the civil rights of others.