Mexico City's mayor refuses veto of gay marriage

Mayor Marcelo Ebrard of Mexico City has refused to veto the bill approving same-sex marriage, according to local media reports. 

Approved on December 21, the law has been criticized by the Catholic Church, as well as evangelical congregations in Mexico.The Cardinal Archbishop of Mexico Noberto Rivera Carrera deemed the bill “immoral” and “reprehensible.”

Mayor Ebrard, however, has refused to exercise his veto power to overturn the new rules, which include specific rights for homosexuals to adopt. These are scheduled to take effect in March 2010.

Alejandro Rojas, the city's tourism secretary said, “Mexico City will become a center, where people from all over the world will be able to come and have their wedding, and then spend their honeymoon here."

Members of the National Action Party (PAN) say they will take an appeal to Mexico's Supreme Court.

“We will continue a fierce and persistent battle, and if necessary we will do it before the Supreme Court to safeguard the institutions and values of society such as family and marriage, which is the union between a man and a woman,” they said in a statement.

Advocates of same-sex marriage also had a victory elsewhere in Latin America Argentina saw its first ever marriage of two men who had received a special support from state officials, though Mexico City will be the first capital city on the continent to enact laws allowing gay marriage.