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| Mexico City legislators propose gay rights lawMEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) -- Legislators are drafting a bill that would legally recognize gay unions and allow gay couples to adopt children in the Western Hemisphere's largest city -- a controversial move for this predominantly Catholic, socially conservative country. Lawmakers from the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, the party of Mexico City's mayor, are working in conjunction with gay and lesbian rights groups to put finishing touches on the legislation. They plan to submit the measure next Tuesday, a spokesman for the legislative commission that introduced it said Thursday. "It is very significant from our point of view to advance the human and civil rights of these people that are supposedly born free and equal under the constitution," Armando Quintero, Democratic Revolution leader in the legislature, was quoted by the Reforma newspaper as saying.
"There now exists legal discrimination that prevents them from uniting in a definitive manner and having the same rights as the rest of the citizens." Quintero could not be reached by The Associated Press for comment Thursday. It was not immediately clear what chances the bill had of passing, but apparently it already is creating waves among other lawmakers from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, Mexico's former ruling party, and the socially conservative National Action Party of President Vicente Fox, which unseated the PRI for the first time in 71 years. No party has a majority in the 66-seat assembly for the independent federal district: Democratic Revolution holds 19 seats, the PAN has 17 and the PRI, 16. Mexico is a predominantly Catholic country in which open homosexuality is still not widely accepted. During his campaign, Fox's party aired a negative TV ad that used a Mexican slang term for someone of undefined sexuality while showing Fox's rival hugging and lifting a colleague by the thighs. Fox quickly withdrew the ad and his party soon thereafter published a newspaper ad defending itself to the gay community, the first time a major political party has done so. The party is "not against the gay community in any way," the ad said. "In a Fox administration, there will be freedom for people to live without masks." Fox's party is conservative in other ways: Party legislators in the central state of Guanajuato approved a measure in August prohibiting abortion in cases of rape. The governor vetoed it after a poll showed a majority of the public opposed it. The action prompted then-Mexico City Mayor Rosario Robles, also of the Democratic Revolution Party, to introduce a measure loosening restrictions on abortion in this city of 8 million people. The assembly then in power passed the measure. A new legislature is in session now. The proponents of the gay-rights legislation for Mexico City don't refer to gay "marriage" per say, but instead are modeling their resolution after European initiatives that allow "civil solidarity," a legally recognized union. Gay unions are legal in several European countries including Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Iceland. Finland is in the process of passing such legislation. Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. RELATED STORIES: Mexico City mayor seeks to plug leaky city coffers RELATED SITES: Gobierno del Distrito Federal. Mexico (Spanish)
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