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Mexico Supreme Court upholds gay marriage law

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Mexico’s Supreme Court has upheld a landmark law permitting same-sex marriages in Mexico City, rejecting the conservative federal government’s claim that the law is unconstitutional because it threatens the institution of the family.

The justices, in an 8-2 decision, with one jurist absent, cast their opinions on one of two grounds: First, individual states (including the Federal District, as Mexico City is also known) can define or limit marriage through their legislatures; or second, Mexico’s constitution is vague on the definition of ‘family.’

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Mexico City’s law is an anomaly in the heavily Roman Catholic country, where the church hierarchy and the ruling center-right National Action Party (PAN) have vehemently opposed same-sex marriage.

Thursday’s ruling was greeted as another victory in the international gay-rights community and came the day after a U.S. federal judge struck down Proposition 8, a ballot initiative in California that banned same-sex marriages there. Argentina last month passed a sweeping same-sex marriage law, making it the first country in Latin America to give gay couples the same rights as heterosexuals.

Mexico City’s legislative assembly voted in December to allow same-sex marriages within the Federal District. An estimated 300 gay and lesbian couples have been married since the law took effect in March.

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The Mexican Supreme Court will rule next week on another challenge to Mexico City’s law: whether married gay couples can adopt children. The court is also slated to decide whether same-sex marriages from Mexico City should be recognized and protected in Mexico’s states.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

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