Mexico City to support gay civil unions and abortions

[AnnInLa]

Color me surprised as hell:

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N03253997.htm


Mexico City at vanguard with gay rights, abortion
03 Apr 2007 18:53:01 GMT
Source: Reuters


MEXICO CITY, April 3 (Reuters) - A huge, gritty capital with high crime rates and snarling traffic, Mexico City is becoming a vanguard of liberalism in Latin America by backing gay civil unions and seeking to legalize abortion.

The city's leftist-dominated assembly has upset conservatives and the influential Catholic Church with a swing to the left that is challenging stereotypes of macho Mexico. "People are a little more open. They see us, sometimes they recognize us from the papers, and smile and are really nice," said Rafael Ramirez, who joined his partner Alejandro Diaz in the city's first civil gay union last month.



The capital's Zona Rosa night-life district, home to many gay clubs, erupted with celebrations the day the pair and other homosexual couples took their vows.

City lawmakers are now to vote on April 24 whether to legalize abortion, at the moment allowed only if the mother's life is in danger, she has been raped or the fetus has certain defects.

The assembly, dominated by the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, is likely to approve of abortion in the first three months of pregnancy.

That would bring Mexico City in line with Cuba, Guyana and Puerto Rico as the only places in Latin America to allow abortion without restriction as to reason, according to the U.S.-based Center for Reproductive Rights.

Leftist deputies also plan to allow euthanasia.

Christian groups have staged protests, blessed by the country's top clergyman, against the abortion plan. Pro-choice demonstrators have picketed in front of the city's main Catholic cathedral.

Mexico City, with a population of over eight million, and Mexico's states have separate laws.



Long proud of a freewheeling arts scene that produced figures like Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, Mexico City has a liberal current going back decades. Traditional Mexican values like family loyalty and religion have slipped in recent years as Mexicans travel abroad more, become richer and are exposed to the media.

"We are definitely in a much more open, much more liberal and above all much more informed society. But of course there is still discrimination," said Victor Hugo Cirigo, left-wing head of Mexico City's assembly.

many snips....whole article at link above