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Mexico Supreme Court Upholds Non-Discrimination Against Gays
 Daniela Pastrana - Inter Press Service
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August 19, 2010
| | 320 homosexual couples have gotten married in the federal district of Mexico City since the law was passed on Dec. 29, 2009. | |
Mexico City - In the last two weeks, Mexico's Supreme Court has taken two fundamental steps in recognising the rights of gays and lesbians. On Monday, it voted to uphold a Mexico City law that allows same-sex couples to adopt.
And on Aug. 5, the Court ruled that the law on same-sex marriages approved by the Mexico City legislative assembly was constitutional. Just five days later, on Aug. 10, it decided that any such marriage celebrated in the capital must be recognised in all of the country's 31 states.
"Our families are recognised today, and the arguments of the magistrates referred to the fundamental right of non-discrimination," activist Lol-Kin Castañeda told IPS. "That is an enormous triumph for democracy, and we will see it reflected in future generations."
Ella and Judith Vázquez make up one of the 320 homosexual couples who have gotten married in the federal district of Mexico City since the law was passed on Dec. 29, 2009.
The legislation forms part of a series of progressive laws passed by the leftwing government of the federal district, which have also included the legalisation of abortion, in line with a similar trend seen in other countries of the region. Argentina, for example, became the first Latin American nation to legalise same-sex marriage, last month.
But the laws passed in the capital have been the target of a major counter-offensive by the powerful Catholic Church and President Felipe Calderón's conservative governing National Action Party (PAN).
Attorney general Arturo Chávez filed a challenge in the Supreme Court in January against the law on homosexual adoptions, arguing that it violated constitutional precepts that protect the family and the higher interest of minors. He was joined in the challenge by the governors of the states of Baja California, which borders the United States, and Jalisco, on the Pacific ocean, both of whom belong to the PAN.
"Yes it is a problem to have a federal government opposed to the human rights agenda, but fortunately the Court has acted with integrity on these issues," Mexico City legislator David Razu, one of the driving forces behind the law on same-sex marriage, told IPS. According to the National Centre for the Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS, people who identify as gays, lesbians or bisexuals make up five percent of Mexico's population of 107 million.
Supreme Court magistrate Sergio Valls, who wrote up Monday's ruling, said that refusing homosexuals the possibility to marry and adopt children "would be to constitutionalise discrimination, whatever the kind or origin, ignoring the existence of families with same-sex parents, or pretending they don't exist."
In their majority opinion, nine of the 11 Supreme Court magistrates thus ruled that the higher interest of children is protected when they receive love, affection, education, economic resources and attention, and that homosexuals are as fit to be parents as heterosexuals.
There are no elements to raise a reasonable doubt that the higher interest of children is jeopardised, Valls stated.
But the legislative advances have not been fully applied or enforced.
The Mexico City legislative assembly documented six cases in which the social security institutions refused services to married same-sex couples.
"We have already communicated with the institutions, and the response, after a four-month wait, was that they cannot provide the services," Castañeda said.
In surveys, over half of the respondents have expressed support for same-sex marriage, but not for adoption by gay or lesbian couples.
"Human rights do not depend on popularity, because the arguments set forth do not hurt anyone else's rights," Razu said.
"You can't consult the public about a fundamental right, and in this case there are many fundamental rights involved: the right to non-discrimination, to free association, to marriage, to freedom of expression - rights that cannot be subject to a referendum."
Castañeda commented that the community of gays and lesbians is confident that the Supreme Court verdict will make it possible to extend the rights established in the capital to other states.
"What we are pushing for is equal rights for homosexuals and heterosexuals," the activist said. "These are not new rights, nor are they exceptions; it's simply a question of being treated as equals."
But the fierce opposition mounted by the Church indicates that it will be an uphill battle.
Before Monday's Supreme Court session, cardinal Juan Sandoval Íñiguez, the archbishop of Guadalajara and the second-highest ranking Catholic Church figure in Mexico, alleged that the magistrates had taken money.
"I have no doubt that the judges have been paid off by (Mexico City Mayor) Marcelo Ebrard and by international bodies," he told journalists. "The law on adoptions is an aberration…How would you like to be adopted by a couple of fags or lesbians?" |
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