01.28.2010 11:30am EST
(Mexico City) Mexican federal prosecutors
announced Wednesday that they will try to overturn Mexico City’s gay marriage
law, which allows same-sex couples to adopt children, on the grounds it
violates the constitution.
The Mexico City law, approved in December and due to take effect in
March, is the first of its kind in Latin America.
The federal Attorney General’s Office said in a
statement that it believes the law “violates the principle of legality, because
it strays from the constitutional principle of protecting the family.”
It cited an article in Mexico’s constitution
that suggests – but does not state – that the framers envisioned families
constituted by men, women and children. The article states: “Men and women are
equal before the law. This protects the organization and development of the
family.”
The office said it filed an appeal with the
country’s Supreme Court asking it to void the law, arguing it also “strays from
the responsibility of the government to place a priority on safeguarding the
interests of children.”
The Roman Catholic Church in Mexico has harshly
criticized the law, and President Felipe Calderon’s conservative National
Action Party has mounted a campaign against the measure.
Mexico City legislators argued the law simply
gives same-sex couples the rights that heterosexual couples have regarding
social security and other benefits.
Legislators said there is no evidence children
adopted by same-sex couples suffer any disadvantages.
The federal prosecutor’s office previously
challenged a Mexico City law legalizing abortion, but the Supreme Court upheld
the measure in 2008.
An Argentine couple participated in Latin
America’s first gay wedding in December, but interpretations vary on whether
the law allows same-sex unions in Argentina and the question is now before that
country’s supreme court.
Argentina’s constitution is silent on whether
marriage must be between a man and a woman, effectively leaving the matter to
provincial officials, who approved the wedding. But a law specifically
legalizing gay marriage has been stalled in its Congress since October.