Mexico: Marriage and Adoption for Gay Couples in the Capital · Global Voices
Issa Villarreal

Gay marriage has been legalized in Mexico City, after reforms made to the civil code by the Legislative Assembly on December 21. In the same meeting, a law was passed allowing gay couples to adopt children.
This was the next step after the approval of civil unions in 2006, which gave legal recognition of homosexual couples with certain rights similar to marriage (Sociedades de convivencia [es], or civil partnership), following the state of Coahuila which months before accepted this type of union [es]. Approximatedly 600 unions were given in two years in the Mexican capital, as reported by the newspaper El Universal [es] on June.
Photo by Flickr user Esparta. Used with permission following a Creative Commons license: http://www.flickr.com/photos/esparta/2764876870/
Mexico City is the second Latin American city to legalize gay marriage, after Buenos Aires, Argentina. Supporting gay rights and marriage defies the commonly accepted ‘macho’ figure and the conservative family structure, as well as the strong religion beliefs rooted in Mexican culture. Religious leaders have already spoken publicly against the Assembly’s decision. Catholic Cardinal Norberto Rivera has called the approval of gay marriage [es] “an immoral law” and an “abomination”.
Blogger Martxele from the blog La fuga del caos shares a softer conservative view, arguing that gay marriage and adoption only favor a few [es], as it happened on Mexico City:
Justo ahora cuando la unión libre es el paradigma entre los jóvenes heterosexuales, cuando el matrimonio se ve como una cosa del pasado y muchos lo consideran un bonito lastre, sale nuestra asamblea capitalina a “bendecir” las uniones gays.
Porque ¿qué cosa es eso sino una “bendición” legal? Ya existían las sociedades de convivencia, muy poco socorridas, por cierto (en el primer año beneficiaron a menos de 1000 personas, o sea menos de 500 parejas, en una ciudad del 20 millones de habitantes, el 0.005 % si no me equivoco), ¿qué beneficio añadido puede darles? ¿Adoptar?
Just now when free union is the paradigm of heterosexual couples, when marriage is seen as something from the past, and many people consider it as a nice burden, our capital assembly gives its “blessing” to the gay unions.
Because what is that [marriage] but a legal “blessing”? Civil unions already existed, poorly required, by the way (in the first year they favored less than 1,000 people, which means less than 500 couples, in a city of 20 millions of habitants, 0.005 % if I’m not wrong), what other benefit can be given? Adopting?
On the other side of the spectrum, the phrase “Mexico city” reached the trending topics of Twitter, as citizens like Grisel García celebrated the achievement:
Aprobaron en México City los matrimonios y la adopción de hijos para la comunidad lesbico-gay , woww que modernos nos estamos volviendo ;)
Photo by Flickr user by ORNI¡. Used with permission following a Creative Commons license: http://www.flickr.com/photos/orni68/702482232/
The community, however, remains somewhat skeptical. When it comes to defending rights, Mexican citizens share their doubts of how effective the changes would be for the gay community in a country that suffers from political corruption at all levels. Marina and Maria, a couple from Aguascalientes who blog at 2 lunas 5 estrellas, think the victory should not be taken lightly [es]:
El paso se ha dado, familias homoparentales hemos de lograr el reconocimiento total de nuestros derechos, como siempre hace falta analizar con LUPA esta disposición pues sabemos que nuestro sistema judicial no se precia de ser muy transparente y claro que digamos, sin embargo, representa un TRIUNFO para la causa LGBT en nuestro país.
For Iván Nieblas one thing is saying what is legal and what is not, and another is how it finally works out, as he expressed on Twitter [es]:
Ahora falta que el matrimonio gay sea como la ley sobre el aborto: que les nieguen el servicio.
Twitter parody user elnaquito acidly questions who cast the first stone [es] against the gay marriage law:
Dice la Iglesia q la adopción en parejas gays causa daño psicológico y moral en los niños…será que no quieren competencia?
Anonymous blogger from Machete en mano believes that gay marriage might help to integrate the Mexican community [es]:
Esto simboliza para mi un buen avanze hacia una sociedad mexicana basada en la equidad y justicia. Espero ver mas y mas reformas liberales por parte del gobierno (aunque segun algunos sean aprobadas de formas “tramposas”) hasta el punto en que no existan “ciudadanos de segunda clase” o “raritos”. Ya que como mexicanos tomos somos iguales, o por lo menos se supone que lo somos.
Blogger Rino, a 17-year-old gay blogger from Cancún, considers that legality is just the beginning of change [es], not the end, as the community has the last word:
El problema siento yo, que a pesar de que ya sea legal, todavía falta que haya aceptación social porque no todas las personas ven esto como correcto, pero con el tiempo tengo cambiará, o al menos se verá como algo más normal.
Although there has not been a formal census for the homosexual community, it is estimated that the community stands  between 5 and 10 percent of the population of the country. The Mexican Society of Humanist and Integral Sexology (Sociedad Mexicana de Sexología Humanista Integral) recently reported that 20% of the total population (120 millions) has or had at some moment a relationship with a person of the same-sex, as quoted by the BBC [es].