A coalition called the National Front for the Family is organizing a protest Saturday in cities throughout the country, including one in Guadalajara that organizers claim could attract as many as 100,000 people. A follow-up march is planned to converge in Mexico City on September 24. In protests held last weekend, including one in Mexico City under the banner of “For Life and Family,” organizers delivered a petition reportedly signed by 300,000 people calling on Congress to pass a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
The protests won the endorsement of a group of Catholic bishops, who circulated a letter declaring “we support and encourage the coalition” and calling on their peers to “encourage and promote enthusiastic and creative participation of all individuals, families and groups” in the upcoming marches. [...]
This rapid politicization is a new challenge for Mexican LGBT groups. The country has never had a strong national LGBT rights organization, and infighting has sometimes made collaboration difficult. But there’s been a new level of communication following the president’s announcement, activists say, including a meeting that drew activists from across the country to the city of Cuernavaca late last month that hammered out principles to respond to the growing backlash.
They are now putting a good deal of effort in trying to flip the debate into a referendum on the separation of church and state. Mexico has a long tradition of limiting the church’s involvement in politics — for much of Mexican history priests were not allowed to vote — and LGBT activists are trying to portray religious opposition to marriage equality as crossing a bright line.
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