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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | March 2007 
In Mexico, Gay Couples Ready for Civil Unions
 Laurence Iliff - Dallas Morning News
Mexico City - Like many getting hitched for the first time, Antonio Medina is more than a little nervous about Friday's ceremony - not to mention the intense media scrutiny. Because unlike any other Mexico City resident before him, Medina is joining in a civil union with another man.
"Right now, we are in the eye of the hurricane and we are going to be closely watched," said Medina, 38, a prominent journalist who covers social issues like sexual diversity. "After four years and three months, we are happy. I don't know if we will be old men walking together, but either way, it is also our right to divorce."
Friday is D-Day in the latest culture battle in Mexico as hundreds of supporters of the capital's "living partnerships law" are set to cement their unions in a celebration that has some Dallas activists as pleased as their Mexican counterparts.
"It's helping out our cause locally by having our mother countries stand up for us," said Jesse Garcia, spokesperson for Valiente, a Dallas/Fort Worth-based Latino group that works for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights - alluding to similar laws in Spain, Argentina and elsewhere. "Dallas is 40 percent Latino and in 10 years it will be 50 percent Latino. This is forcing the issue to the dinner table and doing so in a positive way because it is something the government is sanctioning."
Conservative lawmakers from Mexico's ruling National Action Party, or PAN, and bishops from the Roman Catholic Church have vowed to campaign against any type of same-sex unions.
"We should not insult homosexuals or discriminate against them or hurt them, but we should not legalize something that is anti-natural," said Guillermo Bustamante, president of the National Parents Union, which is working to overturn the civil union laws.
At stake is a family-oriented, macho culture that is being threatened by globalized youths who are adopting U.S. lifestyles for better or worse, many on both sides of the issue agree.
Just in the last month:
_Pop star Christian Chavez, a member of the group RBD that is red hot in Latin America and the U.S., became the first Mexican star to publicly declare he is gay.
_The Mexican Supreme Court ruled that soldiers with the HIV virus cannot be forced out of the armed forces.
_The Mexico City government agreed to allow conjugal visits for homosexual prisoners.
And a majority of Mexico City legislators said they would quickly decriminalize abortion. The proposal would make abortion legal in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.
Dallas gay activist Jesus Chairez, who writes the Internet blog "Si Soy Gay" (http://sisoyglbt.blog.com), said people like himself who often visit Mexico might end up living south of the border permanently.
"I wish we had it in Texas because it (a civil union) really shows a commitment . . . that you're not taking the relationship lightly," he said. "When I go to Mexico City and fall in love, now I may have somebody ask me to get married."
The Mexico City law, the first of its kind to be passed in Mexico, has already inspired a similar one in Coahuila. The northern border state's law took effect first, in January. Two women from Midland, Texas, were among the first to get hitched there after proving they were in Mexico legally. Texas does not recognize the law, although the rest of Mexico does.
In conservative Coahuila there have only been four unions, while nearly 600 couples have stated their intention to make use of the Mexico City law.
Both laws allow the couples some of the rights of marriage, such as inheritance and hospital visits, but not adoption or joint custody of children. They also allow couples to take advantage of anti-discrimination laws that protect them in the workplace and when seeking housing, for example. The unions can be dissolved, just like a divorce.
Manuel Nava, a publicist, plans a civil union with his boyfriend later this year, but thinks the Mexico City law is too limited because it is only recognized in the capital.
"But the important thing, of course, is to continue moving forward," said Nava, 40.
That's what causes the greatest fear in the Catholic Church, which claims 90 percent of Mexico's 105 million people.
"What the church is against is that they want to equate homosexual unions with marriage," said Hugo Valdemar, spokesman for the Mexico City archdiocese. "It's our point of view that this is a law created out of thin air and poorly thought out."
Some neighborhood groups in the Mexican capital are trying to get the city to prohibit same-sex commitment ceremonies in public areas like parks because they say they set a bad example for children.
But Medina, the journalist, said same-sex couples are keeping an extremely low profile, which is why he and partner Jorge Cerpa Velazquez, 31, are spending so much of their time talking to the media. No one else wants to.
"What we want are rights," said Medina, adding that "marriage" in a Mexican context is a religious concept that many gays don't believe in.
Tito Vasconcelos, a prominent gay activist, businessman and artist, said the widespread support being given to pop star Chavez by his fans could mark a turning point, given his impact on youth culture.
Chavez declared that he was gay after photos surfaced of his civil union ceremony with another man in Canada. The singer said he was being blackmailed and so decided to go public.
"It would be important for him to register (his civil union) here," said Vasconcelos, who also plans to tie the knot today. "It's great that he accepts his homosexuality, but that would be the next step." |
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