Gay Couples Fight Stiff Backlash Against Same-Sex Marriage in Mexico David Agren - The Guardian
go to original December 19, 2016

Members of the National Front for the Family march in Mexico City to protest President Enrique Peña Nieto’s initiative to legalize gay marriage in September (Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images)

Same-sex couples have been able to marry in Mexico since 2009, when the country’s capital became the first city in Latin America to pass marriage equality laws. But in recent months, a well-organized and well-funded backlash has emerged, claiming credit for derailing a presidential proposal to entrench marriage equality in the country’s constitution.

Meanwhile, a string of cases suggest that rights for gay people are still treated as exceptions to be granted at the discretion of local officials.

And despite a string of court rulings in their favor, gay rights activists now fear that opponents of marriage equality could slow further reforms – or even roll back some of the progress they have achieved.

“We’re worried,” said María Fernanda López, a sociologist and LGBTQ activist in Querétaro. “They’re organized and have economic and political power. It’s something that social movements don’t have.”

Part of the problem is that marriage equality has never been enshrined in national law and remains subject to a patchwork of overlapping state and federal legislation: it is only explicitly legal in 10 of the country’s 31 states and Mexico City.

In 2015, the supreme court ruled that any law restricting marriage to heterosexual couples was “discriminatory”, meaning that state laws prohibiting same-sex marriage can be successfully circumvented with a court injunction.

Surveys show the country split on same-sex marriage – a poll in the newspaper El Universal showed 49% opposed and 43% in favor – although there is still strong opposition to gay couples adopting children.

Read the rest at The Guardian

Related: Mexico Again Fined Over 'Homophobic' Fan Chants at USA vs. Mexico World Cup Qualifier (Fox News)

Related: Colombia: The Next Battleground in the Global Fight for Marriage Equality (The Guardian)

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