•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has said of his government’s challenge to the constitutionality of amendments in Mexico City legalizing same-sex marriage that it is merely a “legal debate” on which the Supreme Court must rule.

Calderon said the Mexican Constitution specifically mentions “marriage between a man and a woman” and thus the new civil law codes that came into force in March are unconstitutional.

The Mexican Attorney General’s Office filed a writ challenging the constitutionality of same-sex marriage and the right to adopt by these couples shortly after it was approved by the Federal District (Mexico City) Legislative Assembly, where the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution holds a simple majority.

Several states, led by conservative National Action Party (PAN), filed similar challenges, but the Supreme Court has rejected several of them. It continues to analyze the one submitted by the federal Attorney General’s Office.

“There is no political intention, nor is it based on any prejudice,” Calderon said of the move to challenge same-sex marriages. He insisted that he “fully respects the sexual preferences of any person or couples composed of persons of the same sex.”

Mexico City was the first metropolis in Latin America to give the go-ahead to homosexual marriages. Same-sex marriage, approved on Dec. 21 in the Mexican capital, has reached the region, protected or not under different constitutions.

Many political parties have included same-sex marriage in their platforms and although, as in other parts of the world, critics are many and societal changes slow, it would seem that a process has begun on which there is no turning back.

Mexico City had already two years earlier granted legal recognition to same-sex couples through a “law of cohabitation” that provided homosexuals with practically the same rights as heterosexual married couples.

Although Mexico was the first Latin American country — albeit only in the capital — where same-sex marriages were allowed, it was not the first in the region to hold a gay wedding.

That achievement went to Argentina, where Alex Freyre and Jose Maria Di Bello were married in the southern city of Ushuaia, after a previous attempt to legalize their union had failed in Buenos Aires. The marriage went through after the governor of Tierra del Fuego, Fabiana Rios, issued a decree authorizing their union.

The strategy followed by homosexuals in Argentina is to turn to different jurisdictions and file legal writs for protection to allow them to get married. Their argument is that their rights are being violated.

Freyre and Di Bello tried to get married last Dec. 1, International AIDS Day, after a judge in the Buenos Aires, Gabriela Seijas, had authorized a legal protection writ allowing them to get married.

Seijas declared that two articles of the Civil Code that impede same-sex marriage were unconstitutional and ordered that the marriage take place at a civil registry office in the Argentinian capital.

However, the Civil Chamber annulled Seijas’ decision under the argument that a judge whose jurisdiction involves contentious administrative cases could not rule on the Civil Code. The couple continued on their crusade to get married and were successful some days later in Ushuaia.

The strategy of filing court cases is very similar to the one homosexual activists followed in Canada and which finally succeeded in legislation allowing same-sex marriage to be enacted there.

In the United States, homosexual couples have opted for the same approach.

The Argentinian Congress is planning to discuss the matter in the coming weeks. President Cristina Fernandez backs same-sex marriage. Former President Nestor Kirchner, her husband, has also voiced his approval of homosexuals enjoying the same rights as heterosexuals when it comes to marriage.

The first country to legalize same-sex marriage was the Netherlands in 2001. It was followed by Belgium in 2003. Spain approved homosexual marriages in 2005.

In Latin America, civil unions by same-sex couples are recognized in Uruguay, Colombia and Buenos Aires, and in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila.

But for the time being, marriage per se among persons of the same sex is only legal in Mexico City, with the caveat that the Mexican Supreme Court has yet to rule on a challenge filed by the Attorney General’s Office questioning the constitutionality of the amended law.

The Mexico City Civil Code changed the phrase “Marriage is the free union of a man with a woman,” to “the free union of two persons.”

Freyre, a member of the Argentine Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transsexuals — FALGBT by its Spanish abbreviation — is still worried that there will be backlash because of his marriage to Di Bello.

“They are going to try to annul our marriage because evilness against gays has existed throughout history in Latin America. If they do so, we will go all the way to the Inter-American Human Rights Court, which will surely be on our side.” 

Deutsche Presse-Agentur