Latin America’s first law legalizing gay marriage in Mexico City has been passed. Under the bill, the definition of marriage in the city’s civil code will be changed to “the free uniting of two people.” The same law also allows gay couples to adopt children. In a vote on Monday the city’s government passed a bill changing the definition of marriage from a union of a man and a woman to a union of two people.
The city’s leftist mayor, Marcelo Ebrard of the Democratic Revolution Party, was widely expected to sign the measure into law. However, the conservative Nation Action Party of Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderon, has vowed to challenge the gay marriage law in the courts.
The change would allow same-sex couples to adopt children, apply for bank loans as a couple, inherit wealth and be included in the insurance policies of their spouse, rights they were denied under civil unions already allowed in the city.
Currently only seven countries allow gay marriages, including Canada, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium. US states that permit same-sex marriage are Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut and New Hampshire.
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