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Mexico court upholds gay marriage law
MEXICO CITY |
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's supreme court on Thursday upheld a landmark law that allows gay marriage in the capital city, bucking a challenge raised by the conservative government of President Felipe Calderon.
This year, Mexico City became the first capital in mainly Catholic Latin America to pass a law allowing gay couples the same marriage and adoption rights as heterosexuals.
But Calderon's government and his right-wing National Action Party, or PAN, argued the law was unconstitutional on grounds it would be destructive to families. The powerful Catholic hierarchy in Mexico calls gay marriage immoral.
While the supreme court decided gay marriage was constitutional, it will review the adoption clause on Monday.
"Those of us who are in favor of this (law) are in favor of diversity and tolerance," Supreme Court Justice Arturo Zaldivar said during the court's deliberations.
"Our constitution does not establish a concept of marriage," he said.
Since the law was passed, more than 300 same-sex couples have tied the knot, the majority of them men.
Activists see the law as part of a sea change in attitudes on homosexuality in much of traditionally macho Latin America.
Argentina this year passed a law allowing gay marriage nationwide, the first such measure in the region. Neighboring Uruguay allows same-sex couples to adopt under civil unions, but not to marry.
Mexico City's bill was pushed through by leftist Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, who has backed other liberal measures like the legalization of abortion, which remains illegal in most cases across the rest of the country.
With some 20 million residents, the Mexico City metropolitan area is one of the world's largest cities.
(Reporting by Miguel Angel Guitierrez; writing by Mica Rosenberg; editing by Missy Ryan and Jerry Norton)
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To look at this any other way is like giving a teacher the name Professor so that he can make a larger salary with employee benefits even though he did not earn a degree. You know that is not right.
It is very simple to understand the qualifications for becoming married? There are qualifications for marriage. One needs to be an out-ie and one needs to be an in-ie, however, even then human defects can prevent some of these types of persons from having children, the main honest reason for anyone getting married.
If you just want to get married to have abnormal sex with this partner and get benefits from the Government in the form of tax, food stamps, health insurance and retirement benefits, that is like signing up for health, death, or any other kind of insurance and giving false information to qualify.
If two people of any sexual orientation feel they are not receiving the same benefits that married couples receive and this makes them feel discriminated against, by all means they should have the benefits laws changed to allow them the same benefits as other couples living under the same conditions, example: Women and Men in the work place. Wages, benefits etc. We don’t need to give them titles to allow them the same benefits that other men and women have. This is a very simple solution. Ask any Professor about his title.
If a Judge does not agree with this, I’m not sure he earned his TITLE.
and i thought mexico was backwards. i will have to rethink this.
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