Gay Rights Victory

Landmark legislation has been passed in the overwhelmingly Catholic Mexico City legalizing marriage between same-sex couples – the first region in Latin America to do so. “The law, which is likely to be signed soon by the city’s increasingly high-profile leftist Mayor, Marcelo Ebrard, was passed by a vote of 39 votes to 20 in the city assembly on Monday to loud chants from supporters in the galleries of ‘Yes, We could. Yes, we could’ – words that will become ‘We do’ for some couples early in the new year. It was a victory not just for gay rights activists in Mexico and across Latin America but also for the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) which has controlled government of the sprawling Mexican capital since 1997. The bill was opposed by members of President Felipe Calderon’s National Action Party (PAN), which holds power nationally. Party officials have already vowed to challenge the new city law in the Supreme Court.”