Mexican State Near
Texas Passes
Gay Union Law
By REUTERS, from the
NYTimes on the Web, January 12, 2007
MEXICO CITY, Jan.11 -- The
northern state of Coahuila, a mining and ranching region south of Texas,
approved gay civil union on Thursday, becoming the second area in Mexico to give
legal status to homosexual partnerships.
Legislators in the state Congress voted 20-13 for a bill that gives gays greater
rights than a similar law backed by Mexico City last November.
"It is more like a civil marriage," said Silvia Solis, a gay rights activist in
the capital. She said Coahuila would grant social security benefits to
both members of a homosexual union, an important demand of gay campaigners.
The law was promoted by Coahuila's Institutional Revolutionary Party, which
rules the state.
Coahuila once formed a state with Texas, which was part of Mexico before the
United States annexed much of what is now the U.S. Southwest in the mid-19th
century.
The Argentine capital Buenos Aires legalized same-sex unions in 2002, in a move
hailed as a first in Latin America.
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