Homophobia Seemed to Surge in Mexico After Peña Gay Marriage Proposal
Let me just quantify the tittle: The homophobes were always there like Trump voters were here, they just kept quiet about it…..
Homophobia has surged in Mexico since president Enrique Pena Nieto proposed to legalise same-sex marriage in May, a gay rights group said, reporting 26 hate-fueled murders this year. Alejandro Brito, head of the Citizen Commission against Homophonic Hate Crimes, said there was a “defamation campaign” against gays.
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"This can trigger a wave of violence and an increase in attacks against homosexuals. We think that it's important for the authorities to take care of this before a tragedy takes place," he said yesterday. "Homophobia has worsened this year due to the opposition to the initiative that the president has sent to Congress," Brito said at a news conference.
"We don't want an Orlando in Mexico," he said, referring the murder of 49 people by a gunman at a gay nightclub in the Florida city in June. Pena Nieto has proposed a constitutional reform that would legalise same-sex marriage nationwide after the Supreme Court ruled last year that state bans were unconstitutional.
Currently only a handful of the country's 31 states and Mexico City allow such weddings. Brito said that at least 26 people from the LGBT community were killed so far this year, with some brutal homicides perpetrated after the president's announcement.
On June 25, two lesbians were verbally attacked by a man for their sexual orientation while they were outside a store in the northern city of Monclova. The couple left but the man hit their car with his vehicle and shot one of the women in the neck, killing her, Brito said.
The Mexico Equality Movement has documented two other murders of gays after Pena Nieto's announcement. One was run over and the other one was tortured. Brito's group reported 44 homophobia-fueled murders in 2015, down from 72 in 2014. An average of 71 anti-LGBT murders have taken place every year in the past decade.
But Brito said the figure is likely much higher as the statistics are only based on news reports.
But Brito said the figure is likely much higher as the statistics are only based on news reports.
"For each case reported in the press, there are at least two others that are not reported," he said. Pena Nieto’s initiative has been opposed by Mexico's Roman Catholic Church and members of conservative parties. The leftist Democratic Revolution Party and LGBT rights groups filed complaints in the interior ministry and the government’s anti-discrimination agency against bishops and a cardinal, accusing them of violating the constitution for their public stance against same-sex marriage. firstpost.com
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What’s missing from Mexico vis a vis United States gay marriage is education. What should have happened would have been for both public and private sectors to explain why should there be gay marriage. Who are the gay people? In United States there was a campaign before and after there was gay marriage showing the population that gays were in everyone’s family. Either in the past or in the present and if not, there are still gays we interact every day from friends and co workers that don’t talk about it and we don’t know their sexual orientation.
In United States we started the fight of going from state to state but realized some states were too far behind in recognizing gays as comparable human beings and it was the same states that had problems with the right to vote, inter-race marriage and even the end of slavery.
We realized we needed the same power that made all of those things I just mentioned happen and that was the power of the Supreme Court.
I don’t know the constitution of Mexico but if it proclaims that all citizens are to be treated equally then the highest courts there is the way to go.
Companies and Education:
The private sector also played a big role in education in the US. Many of those companies are also in Mexico. McDonalds, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, etc., can also make the effort there to educate and have equal hiring and opportunities for all and let the public know.
It was great that President Peña went for gay marriage and the timing seemed right since the Supreme Court in the US had made the decision but it seemed like there was a vacuum in education and for backing from organization the public respected. Yes, the Catholic Church coming down hard against it is not helping but they also did in the US.
You have to teach people and find out why they oppose gay marriage and gay rights.
If its religious then you have to point out many things people do daily that does not square with the scriptures. If it’s sex, well that is private. Is it the way we dress? Not everybody dresses the same way and the people they probably think are gay is because they are perceive to be effeminate in some way.
Then show them the figures in sports globally and in companies such as Apple, Mozilla,Pay Pal and others were their CEO’s are gay and nobody would know if they were not out to the public.
When you have organized opposition like the church and then you have new groups with Putin-Russian scare tactics you need to counter them and bring the truth out and the lie exposed to the light of that truth. This thing that kids cannot be told about gays like if kids were stupid needs to go besides it needs to be pointed out that gays are not made but born. There are gay kids and they should feel that there are other solutions for them besides suicide and getting married to go in the down-low.
I hope that the gay community there learn from us and other nations how they have done it. In all cases education is key.
You are not going to have everyone accept you but at least the misinformed and uneducated can be brought to your around and for the hard core homophobic which many times are gay themselves or afraid of being gay, for those only time is the answer.
Adam Gonzalez
In United States we started the fight of going from state to state but realized some states were too far behind in recognizing gays as comparable human beings and it was the same states that had problems with the right to vote, inter-race marriage and even the end of slavery.
We realized we needed the same power that made all of those things I just mentioned happen and that was the power of the Supreme Court.
I don’t know the constitution of Mexico but if it proclaims that all citizens are to be treated equally then the highest courts there is the way to go.
Companies and Education:
The private sector also played a big role in education in the US. Many of those companies are also in Mexico. McDonalds, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, etc., can also make the effort there to educate and have equal hiring and opportunities for all and let the public know.
It was great that President Peña went for gay marriage and the timing seemed right since the Supreme Court in the US had made the decision but it seemed like there was a vacuum in education and for backing from organization the public respected. Yes, the Catholic Church coming down hard against it is not helping but they also did in the US.
You have to teach people and find out why they oppose gay marriage and gay rights.
If its religious then you have to point out many things people do daily that does not square with the scriptures. If it’s sex, well that is private. Is it the way we dress? Not everybody dresses the same way and the people they probably think are gay is because they are perceive to be effeminate in some way.
Then show them the figures in sports globally and in companies such as Apple, Mozilla,Pay Pal and others were their CEO’s are gay and nobody would know if they were not out to the public.
When you have organized opposition like the church and then you have new groups with Putin-Russian scare tactics you need to counter them and bring the truth out and the lie exposed to the light of that truth. This thing that kids cannot be told about gays like if kids were stupid needs to go besides it needs to be pointed out that gays are not made but born. There are gay kids and they should feel that there are other solutions for them besides suicide and getting married to go in the down-low.
I hope that the gay community there learn from us and other nations how they have done it. In all cases education is key.
You are not going to have everyone accept you but at least the misinformed and uneducated can be brought to your around and for the hard core homophobic which many times are gay themselves or afraid of being gay, for those only time is the answer.
Adam Gonzalez
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