Mexican gay rights activists and Catholic protestors clash
In Mexico yesterday, gay rights activists and a group of Roman Catholics clashed during a demonstration over the issue of same-sex marriage which is currently legal only in the country’s capital, Mexico City.
In the plaza by the cathedral in Guadalajara, west Mexico, up to 200 gay rights activists held up rainbow flags and placards, one of which said “Thank God I’m Gay”. As reported by the Associated Press, there were an equal number of Catholic opponents present at the demonstration, who prayed in the cathedral’s doorway.
One of the Catholic protesters tore up a sign held by a pro-gay member of the demonstration, prompting a heated verbal exchange which led to increased shouting and protest on both sides.
This comes only a few days after Guadalajara’s Catholic Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez suggested Mexico City’s recently-upheld gay marriage law was only passed because the country’s Supreme Court was bribed by Mayor Marcelo Ebrard’s government to do so.
In El Semanario, the American Hispanic newspaper, Cardinal Sandoval wrote that the court had betrayed Mexican families and natural law by upholding the law’s constitutionality. He also wrote that the court’s ruling that allows married gay and lesbian couples to adopt was certain to harm “many innocent Mexicans”.
Mayor Ebrard of Mexico City has filed a challenge against Cardinal Sandoval after the latter refused to retract his claim regarding Mr Ebrard buying the court’s ruling.
