Gay and lesbians couples can now legally marry and adopt children in Mexico City, after a historic but not necessarily surprising vote in the legislative assembly. The Distrito Federal’s governing representative body is dominated by the leftist PRD, or Democratic Revolutionary Party, and for weeks word had spread on online networks that the Monday vote was coming.
It came down beautifully, 39-20, to change the Federal District’s legal code to define a marriage as a union between two willing adults, in effect fortifying a 2006 law already allowing same-sex unions. A separate vote also gave same-sex marriages the right to adopt children.
What does this mean for you? If you’re not in a committed same-sex relationship within the borders of the Mexican capital, you’re probably thinking, ‘Not a whole lot.’ But as Time points out, gay-rights advocates across Catholic-heavy Latin America are hoping that the Mexico City vote could create a ripple-effect in other regions:
On Wednesday, 10 same-sex couples filed legal motions in a court in Rosario, Argentina, demanding their right to marry. In neighboring Chile, a column in the newspaper Paradiario was headlined, “Gay Marriage Approved in Mexico. In Chile When?” In the swampy Mexican state of Tabasco, 20 gay couples sent a motion to the state legislature asking to allow them to tie the knot.
Now what are the chances that a ripple-effect could skip over the Rio Grande and influence rulings on the American side? The vote certainly got pinged plenty in the U.S. as an example of what is possible. Yet it is worth re-stating an obvious point about the culture of Mexico City that undoubtedly influenced Monday’s vote.
D.F. is exceedingly gay-friendly, not just for a city in Latin America but for a city anywhere in the world. Despite that pesky Mexican macho stereotype (or perhaps because of it?), gay identity in Mexico City is little more than another texture on the patchwork of the cosmopolitan fabric. Which is why the vote didn’t feel like a major watershed moment on the streets of the bustling city.
Except for the Church, which found itself having to backtrack on a bishop’s initial comments that the gay marriage vote was a “stupidity.” Global Voices gathers up other reactions here, highlighting Twitter users who fear the vote could create some sort of anti-gay backlash in Mexico.
That doesn’t seem any more likely now than before. If anything, the new law in Mexico City offers gay marriage advocates around the world another victory to enlist in the long battle for equality.
* Above, gay marriage supporters celebrating outside the legislative assembly, via AFP.
