Two glowing brides in matching white gowns and four other same-sex couples made history in Mexico City on Thursday as they wed under Latin America’s first law that explicitly approves gay marriage.
Mayor Marcelo Ebrard was a guest of honor at the weddings of Judith Vazquez and Lol Kin Castaneda and the other couples who tied the knot in a city building, despite harsh criticism from the Roman Catholic Church and a campaign against the measure by Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s conservative National Action Party.
Vazquez, a 45-year-old small-business owner, and Castaneda, a 33-year-old psychologist, signed and put their thumb print on the official documents.
Then they sealed their union with a kiss amid cheers from family and friends gathered in the colonial-era building’s courtyard, decorated with calla lilies, banners with the colors of Mexico’s flag and a sign that read: “Tolerance, Liberty, Equality, Solidarity.”
“This is the mark of freedom,” Vazquez said, raising her thumb.
Vazquez said she and Castaneda have considered themselves married ever since they moved in together six years ago.
“The difference today is that the state will recognize it,” she said while getting her hair done at home before the wedding. “This is a victory for all ... For us this is a day of celebration.”
Mexico City’s legislature passed the first law explicitly giving gay marriages the same status as heterosexual ones in December. The legislation also allows same-sex couples to adopt children.
For now, the law applies only to residents of Mexico City, though a marriage performed in one state must be recognized in the rest of the country.
“Today is a historic day in Mexico City,” said Judge Hegel Cortes, who officiated the weddings. “With the signing of these marriage certificates, we leave behind the traditional idea of a family and we allow for two people, regardless of sexual orientation, to get married.”
Thursday’s weddings are not the first of their kind in Latin America, although they are the first approved under legislative authority.
In December, two Argentine men were wed in a civil ceremony by a sympathetic governor and with court approval. Interpretations vary, however, on whether Argentine law allows same-sex unions, and the question is now before that country’s Supreme Court.
Argentina’s Constitution is silent on whether marriage must be between a man and a woman, effectively leaving the matter to provincial officials. A law specifically legalizing gay marriage has stalled in Congress since October.
The new law in Mexico’s capital district, which is home to roughly 8 million people, has been closely watched in the US, where same-sex marriage is legal in the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Iowa, Vermont, Connecticut and New Hampshire.
In New York, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force spokesman Pedro Julio Serrano cheered the milestone.
“People in the United States can look up to Mexico City and see a courageous legislature taking a stand,” Serrano said.
“It’s a model to follow,” he said.
Federal prosecutors are attempting to overturn the law, which Mexico City lawmakers argue simply gives same-sex couples the rights that heterosexual couples have regarding social security and other benefits.
The Catholic Church has hotly criticized the law, especially its provision letting same-sex couples adopt children — something several couples said they were considering.
On Thursday, the Archdiocese of Mexico accused the city government of approving a “perverse and immoral law.”
“It may be legal, but it will never be moral,” spokesman Hugo Valdemar Romero said in a statement.
Outside the city building, about two dozen protesters held banners that read “one man plus one woman equals marriage.”
“A family is formed by a father and a mother,” said Teresa Vazquez, a 51-year-old homemaker and member of a group opposed to same-sex marriage. “And I don’t agree with their idea that a couple of two men is a family, because it’s not and it’s a bad example for children.”
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS