Mexico City legalizes same-sex marriage

Mexico City’s Legislative Assembly voted 39-20 to legalize same-sex marriage Dec. 21.

Mayor Marcelo Ebrard supports the measure and will sign it.

It redefines “marriage” as “the free uniting of two people.”

The bill also explicitly legalizes adoption by gay couples.

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Federal benefits, such as pension, inheritance and social-security rights, will remain off-limits to married gay couples without changes in federal law to recognize the Mexico City marriages.

Politicians from Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s conservative National Action Party have threatened to try to overturn the new law via a challenge in the Supreme Court, arguing that it violates the federal constitution.

Same-sex marriage is legal in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Spain and Sweden. It also is legal in the United States in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.

By Rex Wockner

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