The ” march for the family” was held in September by 100 cities across all 32 Mexican states. It was a protest against a proposal that would legalize homosexual marriage. According to the National Front for Family coalition of civil societies and religious groups who organized the march, more than one million people took part. Other sources put the number at hundreds of thousands.
LGBT activists responded quickly to the march by counter-protests as well as arguments based on human rights.
The massive anti-gay wedding protests were a bit of a shock. Gay marriage is legal in Mexico City and many other states. In 2015, Mexico hosted 70 Pride Events, placing this Latin American Catholic country third on the list of countries hosting such events.
On World Day Against Homophobia (17 May), President Enrique Pena Nieto proposed a Constitutional Reform that would recognize same-sex married couples.
Catholics: Judge not
Although mostly Catholic churches called on believers to march in opposition to the proposed legislation, Church authority has been evolving with this issue. It is consistent with the leadership shown by Pope Francis I in 2013, who famously said: “If someone is gay, and seeks God, and has goodwill, who am I?”
The pope had already shown support of gay rights when he was the Archbishop in Buenos Aires.
I support homosexual rights, and I’m also in favor of civil unions. However, I don’t think Argentina is ready to pass a law on gay marriage.
Catholicism is declining in Mexico. The shift is not as dramatic in Mexico as it has been in other Latin American nations such as Brazil or Guatemala, where evangelical Protestantism increased in recent years.
Pope Francis and Mexico’s First Lady Angelica Rivera, wife of President Enrique Pena Nieto. Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters
The National Institute of Statistics of Mexico has discovered that between 1950 and 2010, the percentage of people who identified themselves as Catholics dropped from 98.2% down to 89.3%. Only 4.9% of Mexicans claim to have no religious belief.
Church leadership is needed in the fight against sexual diversity and to protect the rights of parents who are same-sex and single-parent families. Many catholics adhere to church dogma and obey their priests in order to avoid “living a sinful life”. They want to follow the rules of the church.
Mexican Catholics, however, are ignoring Rome in their opposition to gay marriage and following Mexican church doctrine. Mexico’s Catholic Church will eventually have to face this contradiction.
Mexico cannot let conservative evangelical groups lead the debate. Pena Nieto recently met with 27 pastors who opposed the proposed gay marriage legislation. The Mormon church has also publicly rejected this initiative.
Children are also people
Respect for children’s rights is an element that has been under-analyzed in the debate about gay marriages in Mexico, including adoption rights. Children aren’t just “little people” as they have been conceptualized up until the 19th Century. In 1924, the Geneva Declaration on the Rights of the Child recognized that children are individuals who have specific rights. Later, the UN Convention on the Rights of Children confirmed these rights.
Gay adoption is included in the debate about gay marriages in Mexico. Article 21, of the Convention states that in adoption cases, the “superior interest of the child” must be considered.
Any discussion on family structure should focus on the rights of each child – their right to life, to a name, to education, to health and safety, to play, to have parents that take responsibility for them.
Under international law, when Mexicans march in support of “the family”, we are obliged to respond by asking what type of family is best for a child.