The question now is whether this will inspire a political backlash in the vast majority of the country where the PRD is a minority. That didn't happen after Coahuila legalized homosexual unions, but then again, Coahuila ain't Mexico City. The recent wave of abortion legislation being passed by state governments would seem to indicate that the ground is fertile for a gay marriage backlash, but I'm not convinced. Gay marriage provokes more indifference than does abortion. The reaction I see most often, even from people who are not personally comfortable with homosexuality, is, Why should I care about stuff in which no one gets hurt and that doesn't affect me? Although the added provision that gay married couples can adopt children could, for some, throw a monkey wrench into that line of thinking.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Gay Marriages and the Range of Reaction
The government of Mexico City has legalized homosexual marriage, which means, among other things, we can expect a cooling in bilateral relations if Marcelo Ebrard and Rick Santorum are both elected president in 2012. The PAN and PRI both voted against the measure, but the PRD majority in Mexico City made the opposition of the nation's top two political forces irrelevant. Unless I'm mistaken, Mexico City is now the second entity in the nation which permits gay unions, after Coahuila (a fact which always seems to go weirdly unmentioned in media coverage). In response, local church figures were up in arms, but the Vatican refused to comment, calling it a local issue.
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2 comments:
I had to go way back in my files, but Coahuila technically has "Civil Solidary Pacts" -- which carry the same rights and obligations as marriage, but under a different name... which might mean they aren't recognized outside the state. Marriages in one state being valid everywhere, the DF law might be viewed differently.
But, you're right, nobody's raised a fuss and the kickup now has more to do with "lefties" pushing this than anything else. Coahuila's law was pushed through by the PRI, which meant, naturally, both PRD and PAN had objections.
And, please... not "homosexual marriage" same-gender marriage. It's not political correctness so much as accuracy. Not everyone who marries a person of the same gender is homosexual (or even thinking about sex) -- same-gender marriages being a logical and fairly common choice for elderly persons looking to maintain independence while sharing household expenses or persons looking to leave their estate to a non-relative.
"homosexual marriage" is out? Didn't know, I'll now adopt same-gender or same-sex as the modifier.
Re Coahuila, youre absolutely right, I checked on it after posting and saw the same, which is kind of odd, because they are almost universally referred to as marriages. Even in the media.
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