First Gay Marriages Celebrated in Mexico City

MEXICO CITY (March 4) -- Dozens of happy couples lined up to file for marriage and adoption licenses at civil registry offices across Mexico's sprawling capital today as a law that permits gay marriage came into effect.

The law redefines marriage in the city civic code from a union between a man and a woman to the "free uniting of two people." It also allows gay couples to adopt children and include each other in insurance plans.

"This is very vanguard because the language of the code actually changed," Rodrigo Cervantes, a playwright and producer of gay musicals, said outside a civil registry office in downtown Mexico City, where he filed for a marriage license with his partner of 10 years. "I've always had to live a double life. As a Mexican, this really surprised me."

Cervantes, 34, and Mirko Marzadro, 38, plan to tie the knot in a group ceremony March 21, followed by a traditional Mexican dinner and a live mariachi band. "We just want people to see that we're a normal couple," Marzadro, an Italian citizen, said, adding that the license should speed up his application for Mexican citizenship.

"This is an incredibly important step," said Patria Jiménez, a gay-rights activist who runs a lesbian bookstore and cafe in Mexico City. "This brings the fight from the streets to the institutions. Now we have to make it federal." Jiménez, 54, said her partner of 12 years wants to ensure that the city will keep her information private and that she won't be penalized for marrying a woman before the couple seeks a marriage license.

Strong opposition arose almost as soon as the law was passed on Dec. 22. In his final homily of the year in Mexico City, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera said, "Today the family is under attack in its essence by the equivalence of homosexual unions with marriage between a man and a woman."

President Felipe Calderon's National Action Party (PAN), closely tied to the Catholic Church, also launched attacks. The attorney general filed a challenge before the Supreme Court, arguing gay marriage violated the constitution.

The city's Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD)-dominated Legislative Assembly has pushed through a liberal agenda in recent years, legalizing abortion, no-fault divorce and same-sex civil unions. But activists successfully argued that only gay marriage can protect the rights of families in matters such as property, insurance and custody.

Ema Villanueva, 34, a language teacher sporting a spiky gray bob and a black T-shirt depicting Lady Liberty tongue-locked with Lady Justice, said marrying her partner will allow both women to share parental duties like signing report cards and approving medical treatment for their 5-year-old daughter, Gala. "This really implies coming out of the closet as a family," she said.

Mexico City's law has been applied before similar efforts in Buenos Aires, where the first gay wedding was to take place last month but was derailed by contradictory court decisions. The enactment in the capital could fuel further battles not only in Mexico, but around Latin America. In Colombia, Uruguay, Brazil, Ecuador and Argentina, civil unions are recognized in certain contexts. In Brazil, for example, gay couples have the right to claim each other's pensions, though a bill recognizing civil unions has been stuck in Congress since the mid-1990s.

The first gay marriage in Latin America actually took place in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, in December after an extensive court battle. But that wedding didn't set a legal precedent; in Argentina, any gay couple who wants to marry must go through the courts, and each successful decision only benefits the couple in question, according to Juan Marsiaj, a political science professor at the University of Toronto.

Mexico City has become "the leader in legislation recognizing same-sex marriage," Marsiaj said. "Activists in other countries are certainly very aware of what is going on there."

In Peru, Congressman Carlos Bruce of the Peru Possible party proposed legislating gay marriage in February, setting off a public controversy over the issue. "The progressive legislation in Mexico is of huge value for countries like Peru because it demonstrates that societies heavily influenced by the Catholic Church and colonization, and with large indigenous populations, can make steps towards recognizing human rights for all people, including lesbians, gays and transsexuals," said attorney Susel Paredes, who represents the Lima-based civil rights group LGTB Legal. "Mexico demonstrates that it's possible."

For Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, of Mexico's left-leaning PRD, supporting gay marriage is a political gamble. Ebrard plans to run for president in the 2012 election, and his views may find little resonance outside the capital. Five of Mexico's 32 states have challenged the law. The court, expected to rule on the case this month, could still overturn the law, echoing the turn of events in California, which legalized gay marriage in June 2008 only for it to be overturned by Proposition 8 months later.

As in California, if the court overturns gay marriage, any weddings that take place in the interim will be recognized as legitimate, Mexico City civil registry spokesman Pablo Fuentes said. "All the marriages that have been celebrated will be valid."