Mexico City Mayor Sues Cardinal Over Gay Marriage Bribe Claim

BY ON TOP MAGAZINE STAFF 
PUBLISHED: AUGUST 19, 2010

Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard has filed suit against a cardinal who

 claims Ebrard bought a Supreme Court ruling in favor of gay marriage,

 the Spanish news agency EFE reported.

Ebrard filed his suit Wednesday after Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan 

Sandoval Iniguez accused Ebrard and his government of bribing the 

court to rule in favor of a gay marriage law approved by Mexico City 

lawmakers in December.

The city previously recognized gay and lesbian couples with civil unions

 and banned the right of gay couples to adopt children.

Mexico's federal government, which is ruled by the conservative PAN 

party, challenged the law on the grounds that it was detrimental 

to children.

But in three decisive back-to-back decisions, the country's Supreme 

Court sided with the city. A week after declaring the law to be 

constitutional, the court ruled that all of Mexico's 32 jurisdictions

 must recognize the gay marriages performed in the capital.

The court also upheld the law's gay adoption provision.

Speaking at a press conference in Aguascalientes the day before 

the court issued its final ruling, Iniguez said the court would not 

reach such an “absurd” conclusion unless it was motivated by

 a large sum of money.

“I do not know of any of you who would like to be adopted by a 

pair of lesbians or a pair of fags,” he said. “I think not.”

The fifty-year-old mayor immediately asked the church to apologize 

or prove its claim. The church refused, and added that it had proof 

the justices were bribed by government officials and international 

rights groups.

“Let me remind the cardinal, the prelates and the spokesman who 

have been insulting, discrediting and threatening the Mexico City 

government and the SCJN (Supreme Court) that we live a secular

 state,” Ebrard said after filing his suit. “The cardinal must submit

 to the law of the land, like all other citizens of this country.”

Also named in the complaint is Hugo Valdemar, spokesman for the 

Archdiocese of Mexico City, who said the court's decision ruling in

 favor of gay adoption “did not take into account the common good

 of the child and considered the child like a dog or cat, without 

respect for its dignity.”

Valdemar also called for the ouster of Ebrard's government.

“He and his government have created laws destructive to the family, 

the laws do worse damage than drug trafficking,” he said. “Marcelo 

Ebrard and his party, the PRD, are determined to destroy us.”

In a “vote of censure,” the Supreme Court unanimously denounced 

the cardinal's statements