Mexico City has become the first city in Latin America to guarantee marriage and child adoption rights to same-sex partners, Mexican daily El Universal reported today.

Pride parade in Mexico, 2009. Photo credit: Thelma Datter

The bill was approved with 39 votes to 20 and five abstentions, as supporters chanted: “Yes, we could, yes we could”, The Associated Press reported. Leftist mayor Marcelo Ebrard, of the Democratic Revolution Party, was expected to sign the measure, while the conservative Nation Action Party, however, will pressure president Felipe Calderon to challenge the law in the court.

The bill changes the definition of marriage in the civil code into the “free uniting of two people”, replacing “the union of a man and a woman”. Under the new law, same-sex couples will be offered several rights not accorded under the city’s previous civil union code, including being allowed to adopt children, apply for bank loans together, inherit wealth and be included in the insurance policies of their spouse. The approval of the adoption of children by gay couples proved more controversial than the approval of their marriages: After a clashing debate, it was approved with 31 votes in favour, 24 against and nine abstentions, El Universal reported.

Homosexuality has been increasingly accepted in Mexico, though many people in the country and in Latin American remain opposed to gay marriage. The Roman Catholic Church said it will oppose the new legislation, whereas members of left-wing parties called it a historic day. The president of the College of Catholic Attorneys, Armando Martinez, commented bitterly the new bill in The Associated Press: “They have given Mexicans the most bitter Christmas. They are permitting adoption (by gay couples) and in one stroke of the pen have erased the term ‘mother’ and ‘father’.” City lawmaker Victor Romo welcomed the change gleefully: “For centuries unjust laws banned marriage between blacks and whites or Indians and Europeans. Today all barriers have disappeared.”

Argentina’s capital was the first Latin American city to legalise same-sex civil unions in 2002. Buenos Aires lawmakers introduced a bill for legalising gay and lesbian marriage in the national Congress in October, but it has stalled since. Only seven countries allow gay marriages: Canada, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium. In the US, same-sex marriage is allowed in Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut and New Hampshire; if legislation recently signed by the mayor of Washington, DC is approved by Congress, then the capitol city will join those states.