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 Editorials | Issues | February 2007 
New Same-Sex Law Challenged in Coahuila
 El Universal
| | Mexico City and Coahuila join the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires and the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul in legalizing same-sex civil unions. |
Piedras Negras, Coah. - State legislators from President Felipe Calderón´s conservative National Action Party (PAN) have asked the Supreme Court to overturn a same-sex civil union law in the northern state of Coahuila.
Francisco Cortés, one of the Coahuila lawmakers, said Saturday that the legal challenge argues that the law - which grants registered same-sex partners rights similar to those of married couples - violates a constitutional clause protecting the family.
Article 4 of the Constitution covers the rights of spouses, children and the family, and states that "men and women are equal before the law. This will protect the organization and development of the family."
"By common sense, we all know that a family is integrated by a man and a woman with the objective of perpetuating the species," Cortés said.
The law was approved by Coahuila last month and on Jan. 31, a lesbian couple in the state registered what officials called Mexico´s first "civil solidarity union."
Television footage showed the couple smiling broadly and shaking hands with officials after the simple ceremony at a registrar´s office.
CAPITAL MEASURE
In November, Mexico City - which as a semi-independent capital zone has some of the same powers as states - passed a similar measure, the first in the nation´s history. The law takes effect in mid-March.
While homosexuality is still taboo in many rural parts of Latin America, some of the region´s urban areas are becoming more tolerant of gays. Mexico City and Coahuila join the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires and the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul in legalizing same-sex civil unions.
At the national level, lawmakers in Costa Rica and Colombia have debated, but not passed, similar measures. |
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