Mexico City: Gay Marriage Mecca
March 2010 is quickly shaping up to be the month for same-sex marriage. Yesterday we had Washington, D.C. move forward with issuing same-sex marriage licenses, followed by Argentina's second official same-sex marriage. Now, for the trifecta, Mexico City is poised to start recognizing gay marriages, with dozens of couples lining up today to apply for marriage licenses. Just like D.C., same-sex weddings can start to be performed next week after a mandatory waiting period.
The symbolism behind a marriage equality victory in Mexico City is huge. Mexico as a whole has the second largest Catholic population in the entire world, and as an institution, the Catholic Church is one of the fiercest opponents of marriage equality. True to form, the Catholic Church in Mexico has worked hard to try and defeat the marriage equality law. Mexico City's Archbishop, Cardinal Norberto Rivera, called marriage equality "perverse" and an assault on families.
Too bad for him that Mexico City politicians disagree. For them, the relationships of gay and lesbian couples deserve to have equal recognition before the law. There's nothing perverse, after all, about honoring people who love one another.
That fact is expressed pretty clearly by Ema Villanueva, a Mexico City resident who told Reuters that she's been waiting a long time to marry her partner.
""We have fought so hard to get this, and now that it is a reality, it seems like a dream," Villanueva said. She's raising a 5-year-old child with her partner.
Speaking of children, that's the other component of the Mexico City law. It not only legalizes same-sex marriage, but it also legalizes gay adoption. A two-fer, if you will, for equality. Now the goal becomes taking this struggle beyond just the city limits of Mexico City, and to the federal level. But that's a tall order, given that conservative President Felipe Calderon has filed a case with Mexico's Supreme Court to get the law overturned.
The Court hasn't ruled yet. Which means that at least for today, Mexico City makes global history by moving marriage equality forward.
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