Mexico City Sees Its First Gay Civil Unions

When two middle-aged men tied the knot on March 16, they became the first legally recognised gay couple in Mexico City, the capital of the worlds second largest Catholic country.
When Mexican gays unite

Journalist Antonio Medina, 38, and economist Jorge Cerpa, 31, registered for homosexual partnership soon after the citys new law permitting gay civil unions took effect, according to the Associated Press.

The Mexicans were united in front of government buildings, kissing under a flag that read "Civil Union Law: Your right to choose" while a band played "Besame Mucho".

"With this law, a history of exclusion comes to an end," Medina told the AP. "Today, the love that before did not dare say its name has now entered the public spotlight.

Last November, Mexico City passed a bill to allow gays and lesbians to form a partnership protecting property, pension and inheritance rights. But it stops short of granting all the legal statues and rights of marriage.

Campaigners had promoted same-sex civil unions for 7 years before the municipal assembly recognized gay couples legal statues, the BBC reported.

"It is simply fantastic," said Julio Roman, a gay rights campaigner in Mexico City. "It is more than symbolic. It is the result of years of fighting for our basic rights."

Long road ahead

But not everyone is happy. Church officials and Christians reportedly took it to the streets to voice their objections.

"It is simply not the will of God to have acts of homosexuality," Armando Martinez Gomez, president of the Association of Catholic Lawyers, told BBC News.

"We are not against gay people," he noted. "But we believe in a union between a man and a woman for the creation of children."

Church officials have also called the new policy "Hitleria" and the citys politicians faithless, Reuters said.

Mexico City is not the first to take more liberal attitudes toward homosexuals in Latin America. Argentina's capital Buenos Aires, Mexicos northern state of Coahuila and Brazils southern state of Rio Grande do Sul all have legalised same-sex unions.

But the public still remains intolerant of gay couples agitating for legal rights in Mexico, where some 90 percent of its 107 million people are Catholics.

Only 28 per cent of adults support laws that would grant homosexual partners to legal statues and some benefits and rights, according to a poll by Parametra.

In 2005, every two days in Latin America a gay was killed because of his sexuality, reported the Belgium-based NGO International Lesbian and Gay Association.

Countries like Brazil and Mexico have the highest levels of hate crimes, because homosexual people become easy targets when coming out of the closet, said the Economist.

Ting-Yao Lin is from Inter-view Mag. http://www.interviewmag.co.uk, a web magazine that delivers news bites and international stories to readers across borders.

If you want to use any part of the Inter-view Mag, let me know by sending me an email at f.yue@student.westminster.ac.uk

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