Gay Unions Legalized
for First Time in Mexico
By REUTERS, from the
NYTimes on the Web, November 9, 2006
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) --
Mexico City approved homosexual civil unions on Thursday, legalizing gay
partnerships for the first time in the world's second-largest Roman Catholic
nation.
The capital's municipal assembly, controlled by left-wing legislators, voted for
the measure 43-17 as hundreds of rival protesters demonstrated noisily outside
the building.
The move paves the way for same-sex civil unions in the city of 8.6 million
people early next year.
The local congress in the northern state of Coahuila, bordering Texas, began
debating a similar plan this week to legalize gay unions.
"These reforms are going to cause a snowball effect that no one will be able to
stop," said David Sanchez of the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution,
one of the few openly gay national congressmen.
The initiatives in Mexico City and Coahuila are modeled on France's civil code
and call for property, pension, inheritance and even co-parenting rights.
But they stop short of allowing full marriage or adoption of children.
In 2002, the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires legalized same-sex unions, a move
hailed as a first in Latin America.
Outside the assembly hall, gay activists with rainbow-color flags and Christian
opponents of the law exchanged barbs.
"It's anti-natural. They are descending into something that is against
humanity. Societies have always fallen into decadence when there has been
homosexuality and disruption in the family," said protester Humberto Muniz.
Arturo Valadez, 47, a gay musical composer dressed in a monk outfit who has been
with his partner for five years, said the assembly's vote was a blow to a
socially conservative bastion.
"It's a first step in an ultra-Catholic society that is badly informed and
manipulated by right-wing groups and many in the media," he said.
Authorities in Mexico's powerful Catholic Church have condemned gay unions.
Some 90 percent of Mexico's 107 million people are Catholics and conservative
evangelical groups are also winning adherents. Only Brazil has more
Catholics.
Gay union backers say the law does not undermine traditional marriage.
They call it a legal contract between two individuals in a homosexual,
heterosexual or even platonic relationship.
A spokesman for President Vicente Fox, a practicing Catholic, declined to
comment on the Mexico City vote, saying it was a matter for local authorities.
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