By IPS Correspondents
MEXICO CITY, Nov 10 2006 (IPS)

Same-sex couples in Mexico’s capital city are only a step away from receiving legal recognition, after the local legislature approved a law that conservative groups consider to be “sinful,” and that they say they will challenge in the courts.

After five years of acrimonious debate, on Friday the Mexico City legislative assembly, dominated by the leftwing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), approved the Cohabiting Partnerships law. Its entry into force now depends only on the mayor, Alejandro Encinas, whose approval of the bill is considered to be imminent.

The new law grants legal status to same-sex unions, as already exists in a number of cities and countries around the world.

Between 1989 and 2002, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden approved laws giving equal rights to same-sex couples as married couples. Later, similar laws came into effect in France, Germany, Britain, Luxemburg and Switzerland.

Homosexual unions are also legally recognised in the City of Buenos Aires and the southern province of Río Negro, in Argentina, and a similar measure is being studied by the Uruguayan parliament.

The first to take the further step of legalising marriages of same-sex couples were Belgium and the Netherlands, followed by Canada, Spain and the northeastern U.S. state of Massachusetts.

“This law acknowledges a reality that can no longer be hidden, and that demands protection and regulation, setting aside the prejudices of a conservative sector of society,” activist Arturo Díaz, a member of the National Council to Prevent and Eradicate Discrimination, made up of citizens and local authorities, told IPS.

“It’s a first step forward, and our view is that it legalises the rights of so-called sexual minorities, and also those of other forms of cohabitation that weren’t previously protected,” said Díaz, who also belongs to the non-governmental Citizen’s Commission Against Homophobic Hate Crimes.

The new law, which was blocked in 2003 by the then mayor of Mexico City, leftwing former presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who argued that it deserved wider social consultation, grants legal recognition to cohabiting couples regardless of their sexual preferences.

It establishes rights of inheritance, mutual obligations of economic support, and the opportunity to take out joint health and life insurance policies.

Conservatives have expressed vociferous outrage at the approval of the law.

Representatives of the Roman Catholic and evangelical churches have protested that the law grants rights to “unnatural unions,” while legislators belonging to the conservative governing National Action Party argue that it violates legal precepts guaranteeing marriage and family cohesion.

Both sectors said they would challenge the law before the courts.

The capital city’s Legislative Assembly was the scene of open confrontation Thursday. While the draft law was being debated, conservative and religious groups exchanged insults and shouts with gays and lesbians outside the building.

Some carried placards reading “For the honour of normal families, no to the gay law!”, while others wore pink, waved rainbow flags and placards with the words “There can be no political freedom without sexual freedom” and “In bed I’m my own boss”.

The law was first presented to the assembly in 2001. But although it was approved in 2003 by Mexico City legislators, it was blocked by López Obrador’s refusal to promulgate it.

The mayor of the city, López Obrador’s successor after he left the post in 2005 in order to campaign for the presidency, said this Friday that the new law is perfectly legitimate, having been approved by a majority which included the PRD and other parties such as Alternative, Convergence, the Workers Party and New Alliance.

However, he said he would consult the local anti-discrimination council about the law.

“The city government is trying to take care of its political image, but it will doubtless enact the new law, although we must add that we are against opening it up to consultation, because human rights are not to be discussed but to be granted,” said Díaz..

In his view, the new law will be a shield against the abuses to which homosexuals are subjected.

The Citizen’s Commission Against Homophobic Hate Crimes reports that an average of 99 gay-bashing murders a year are committed in Mexico, 34 of them in the capital.

A survey carried out in 2005 by the ministry of Social Development and the National Council to Prevent Discrimination found that 94.7 percent of interviewees belonging to “sexual minorities” said that they felt discriminated against in Mexico.

Studies indicate that between five and 10 million of Mexico’s 103 million people have homosexual or bisexual preferences.

In May and June 2005, the Vicente Fox administration carried out a media campaign with messages aimed at promoting acceptance and respect for sexual diversity.

“Equality begins when we recognise that we all have the right to be different”, and “For an influential, tolerant and plural Mexico”, were two of the slogans used in the campaign, which was harshly criticised by the Catholic Church leadership and conservative groups, in whose view some of the messages broadcast promoted homosexuality.

A government study last year, for which 1,482 people belonging to different “minorities” were interviewed, found that 94.7 percent of homosexuals in the interview sample, 94.4 percent of the disabled, 94.2 percent of women, 90.8 percent of indigenous people, 88.4 percent of elderly people and 80.4 percent of practising members of religious minorities said they had suffered discrimination.

In the study, 71 percent of homosexual respondents said that discrimination is the worst problem they face.

Furthermore, 54.5 percent said they felt rejected by society, 43 percent felt they had fewer study opportunities than heterosexuals, and 72 percent said they had difficulty finding work because they have different sexual preferences.

Nearly 45 percent of those interviewed also said that their families had tried to force them to desist from their sexual preference.

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