Lesbians Register Mexico's 1st Gay Marriage*

By JUAN MONTANO
The Associated Press
Wednesday, January 31, 2007; 10:54 PM

PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico -- A lesbian couple registered what officials
called Mexico's first gay civil union on Wednesday in the northern city
of Saltillo.

The couple, Karina Almaguer and Karla Lopez, traveled to Saltillo from
their home state of Tamaulipas to register as a "civil solidarity union"
under a newly passed law that made Coahuila the first of Mexico's 31
states to grant recognition to such unions.

Television footage showed the couple smiling broadly and shaking hands
with officials after the simple ceremony at a registrar's office.

Coahuila State Assemblywoman Julieta Lopez Fuentes, who served as an
official witness, said the law passed earlier this month allows people
from other states to register such unions in Coahuila.

"The object of this law is that unions of people of the same sex be
legally regulated and recognized, so that they can have some security in
their future," she said.

Lopez Fuentes said it was the first gay civil union in Mexico.

In November, Mexico City _ which as a semi-independent capital zone has
some of the same powers as states _ passed a similar measure, the first
in the nation's history, but that law will not go into effect until
mid-March.

Such laws, which provide gay couples with numerous social benefits
similar to those of married couples, have been sharply criticized by the
Roman Catholic Church and the conservative National Action Party of
President Felipe Calderon.

While homosexuality is still taboo in many rural parts of Latin America,
the region's urban areas are becoming more socially liberal. Mexico City
and Coahuila join the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires and the southern
Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul in legalizing same-sex civil unions.

At the national level, lawmakers in Costa Rica and Colombia have
debated, but not passed, similar measures.