On Dec. 21 Mexico City's legislature, the Federal District Legislative Assembly (ALDF), voted 39-20 to permit same-sex marriage; another 39-20 vote later in the session gave same-sex couples the legal right to adopt children. Deputies from the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and the small leftist Workers Party (PT) voted for the measure, while the center-right National Action Party (PAN) and the small Ecological Green Party of Mexico (PVEM) opposed it. Two deputies from the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) voted with the opposition, and five abstained. PAN coordinator Mariana Gómez del Campo and PRI coordinator Israel Betanzos said they would challenge the law's constitutionality before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN).

Federal District (DF) head of government Marcelo Ebrard—in effect, Mexico City's mayor—is a member of the PRD and is expected to sign the bill. If he does, the Mexican capital will become the first city in Latin America to recognize same-sex marriages. (Associated Press, Dec. 21; La Jornada, Mexico, Dec. 22). The DF was the first Mexican political unit to approve same-sex civil unions, in a vote on Nov. 9, 2006.

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Dec. 27

See our last post on Mexico.