Mexico City’s five-month-old gay marriage law was upheld by the nation’s
Supreme Court on Aug. 5. The vote was 8-2.
The justices said marriage is a matter of equal rights and states’ rights
– and federal district rights. Mexico City is a federal district like
Washington, D.C.
“Those of us who are in favor of this are in favor of diversity and
tolerance,” said Justice Arturo ZaldÃvar.
Justice Fernando Franco added: “Procreation is not an essential element of
marriage and neither does (same-sex marriage) interfere with the
protection that the Constitution grants to the family and to procreation,
because those who want to conceive are fully able to do so.”
The court next will take up the question of whether the city’s approval of
gay adoption also is constitutional, and examine whether gay couples
married in Mexico City are married elsewhere in the country.
The conservative national government had challenged the law, claiming it
violated a vague clause in the Constitution that says, “Men and women are
equal before the law. This protects the organization and development of
the family.”
The court determined that the clause does not amount to a definition of
“family.”
According to the NotieSe news agency, 173 male couples and 147 female
couples have gotten married. In 27 of the marriages, one partner was a
foreigner — from Austria, Canada, Colombia, England, France, Germany,
Guatemala, Italy, Panama, Romania, Spain, the United States or Venezuela.
By Rex Wockner
