Gay Marriage Comes to Mexico City

by Michael Jones · 2010-03-12 10:56:00 UTC
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Mexico CityThis week started with the first same-sex nuptials taking place in Washington, D.C. And now this week ends with the first same-sex weddings taking place in Mexico City. Two world capitals. Two different time zones. But the same goal: equal rights for everyone.

Even the Mayor of Mexico City, Marcelo Ebrard, got in on the fun, attending the first four weddings to take place. It was the fruition of a law that was passed in December, and took a few months to take effect. Sure, the President of Mexico thinks it's an abomination. And the Catholic Church in Mexico wants to put a halt to it.

But nothing they could say or do stopped the law this week. And that had all of the same-sex couples getting married just beaming.

"I am overjoyed to finally be making this real," Judith Vazquez told the L.A. Times, shortly before marrying her partner. "A different world is possible."

Oh, man, bust out the Kleenex. It's the victories like this, right, that keep us all fighting? I'm reminded of that great Arundhati Roy quote: "Another world is not only possible, she's on the way and, on a quiet day, if you listen very carefully you can hear her breathe."

Might Mexico City have been one of those breaths?

The move to recognize marriage equality in Mexico City is part of a changing atmosphere in Latin America toward same-sex relationships, at least according to some.  Earlier this year (well, starting in December 2009 to be exact), Latin America's first same-sex marriage was performed in Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost area of Argentina. At least one other same-sex marriage took place there. And now, Mexico City.

Jesusa Rodriguez, another one of the couples who was married in Mexico City on the first day of legal same-sex marriage, said that you can see the change happening in her country. And it's moving mountains, so to speak.

"I never in my life thought I'd see this," Rodriguez told the L.A. Times. "There is very strong change coming to my country. Very slowly, like everything here, but change is coming."

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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