The large anti-gay marriage protests came as something of a surprise. Gay marriage is already legal in Mexico City and several states. And, in 2015, Mexico hosted 70 Pride events, making this Catholic, Latin American country only third in the world for the number of such events (after the US and Brazil).
Still, when President Enrique Peña Nieto announced a proposed constitutional reform to recognise same-sex marriage on World Day Against Homophobia (May 17), negative reaction swiftly followed. [...]
Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics has found that from 1950 to 2010, the percentage of the population that identified as Catholic dropped from 98.2% to 89.3%. Only 4.9% of Mexicans report no religious faith.
As such, in the fight for sexual diversity, and for the rights of single-parent families and same-sex parents, leadership must come from the church. Many catholics believe in church dogma, obey their priests and seek to avoid “living in sin”. They want to do as the church mandates. [...]
Violence and discrimination against LGBT people in Latin America is widespread, despite gay marriage legalisation in several countries, including Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil. Brazil has actually seen an increase in anti-gay hate crime since a 2013 court ruling opened the door to same-sex marriage, and there, says the New York Times, “a gay or transgender person is killed almost daily”.
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