"Wonderful"...Gay couples celebrate in Mexico City. Photo: Reuters
MEXICO CITY: The capital of Mexico has become the first municipality in Latin America to approve gay marriage.
The change will give homosexual couples in Mexico City more rights, including allowing them to adopt children.
Turning aside opposition from the Catholic Church, the city legislature approved the measure, 39 votes to 20. As the bill was passed, supporters yelled: ”Yes, we could! Yes, we could!”
The Mayor, Marcelo Ebrard, must sign the bill for it to become law. He is expected to do so.
”This is wonderful,” the gay-rights activist Judith Vasquez said from the legislature floor. ”[Gay] couples have effectively been together for years, decades, centuries. But now it is our right.”
Uruguay was the first Latin American country to recognise same-sex unions. But the Mexico City initiative rewrites law to redefine ”marriage” as a ”free union between two people”.
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