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Anti-LGBTQ Rallies Throughout Mexico Protest President’s Pro-Marriage Equality Proposal
Hundreds of thousands of anti-LGBTQ protesters marched through major Mexican cities last weekend. Rallies took place in cities such as Guadalajara, Chiapas, Pueblo and others.
The protesters are displeased with President Enrique Pena Nieto’s proposal to legalize marriage equality throughout Mexico. While Mexico City and several states already have marriage equality, most states in the country do not.
In an attempt to halt the continuing momentum for marriage equality in Mexico, The Guardian reported that about 40,000 protesters converged in the city of Queretaro to protest.
In the city of Celaya, a picture of a solitary 12-year-old boy with a gay uncle went viral. He single-handedly attempted to stop 11,000 marchers by standing with his arms outstretched in the middle of the street.
The protests were organized by a Catholic organization to demand a constitutional ban on marriage equality and several priests were seen taking part in them, including an archbishop in Tijuana.
Other cities such as Monterrey saw counter-demonstrators who called for marriage equality. On Monday, LGBTQ rights activists and allies marched to Mexico City’s Metropolitan Cathedral to protest the weekend’s anti-marriage equality demonstrations.
In 2015, Mexico’s Supreme Court issued a series of rulings, which constituted the de facto legalization of marriage equality and rendered laws restricting marriage to different-sex couples as unconstitutional. However, the ruling did not require states to change their statutes and most state legislatures have yet to comply and explicitly permit same-sex marriages. In yet some other states, LGBTQ people have won the right to marriage through the courts.
On the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOT) this year, President Nieto submitted an official proposal to Congress to allow marriage equality. The proposal is currently stalled in Congress where it would need the support of two-thirds of members to pass.
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