Christmas weddings

With only token opposition, three separate committees (Human Rights, Justice Administration and Gender Equality) have passed a bill in the Federal District Legislative Assembly to change the wording of the present marriage act from “male and female” to “persons”… in other words, legalizing same-gender marriage.

The Federal District Legislative Assembly is overwhelmingly PRD, and the bill is supported by the PRD, their junior PT and Convergencia partners and most of the PRI.  The Greens (which tend to be social conservatives here) and PAN would oppose this elsewhere, but in the Federal District have resigned themselves to holding the line at excluding same-gender couples from adoption rights.

PAN assembly representatives have argued that the existing partnership registration is sufficient.  Two PAN representatives have mounted a last ditch effort to delay the bill, arguing that 48 hours had not elapsed between introducing the bill and a scheduled vote.  This may delay the vote a day, but it is expected to pass by a wide margin by the end of the week, or early next week… just in time for Christmas.

“Partnership Registration” — which were passed in 2007 after the failure to pass a new gender-neutral marriage bill in 2006 — had little practical effect. Napoleonic Code, which is the source of Mexican law, recognizes the family as the basic economic and social unit.  “Partnership Registration” might give some protection to joint assets, and allow a couple to make the argument that their joint income should be considered when applying for loans or mortgages, for example, but would not make them — like a married couple — automatically entitled to certain benefits.  Common in Mexico are “social credits” for state-backed and private loans and grants (and, within Mexico City, where there has been a chronic housing shortage for years, mortgages) I know more than a few couples who tied the knot, after several years in a “union libre” just to get a decent apartment.

The Church, of course, continues to argue that marriage is “one man-one woman” — which is their right, but then again, clerical weddings have no legal recognition anyway.

The State of Coahuila has allowed same-gender marriages “civil solidarity pacts” now for several years without controversy.  At leaswt within the state, they are the same as a marriage, as far as rights and obligations.  However, it’s a small state (when it comes to population) and, being relatively isolated from the rest of Mexico, what happens in Coahuila stays in Coahuila.  What happens in the Federal District immediately impacts not just the nine million or so actual residents, and the one in five Mexicans who live within an hour or two of the Capital, but — as the economic, political and cultural center of the Republic (and most of Latin America) the impact is going to be major.

Because this is a PRD-sponsored bill, one can expect a backlash from PAN and the PRI in the rest of the country.  In response to liberalized abortion laws in the Federal District (upheld by the Supreme Court), several state legislatures have changed their state constitutions to define “life” as beginning at conception.  However, most of these anti-abortion bills were passed by outgoing legislatures and — with more pressing issues focusing public attention right now — there is likely to be enough delay in conservative response to allow the time for same-gender marriages to be seen for what they are… a rather conservative reform of property law.