Having failed to block marriage equality in the U.S., Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage is bringing his anti-LGBT activism to Mexico.
Brown and his group, along with other antigay organizations, are planning an anti-equality rally for Friday in front of the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C., and he also plans to attend the so-called National March for the Family in Mexico City the following day.
In a recent post on NOM's blog, Brown decried the Mexican government's efforts "to impose same-sex 'marriage' across Mexico and also to have dangerous gender theories taught to Mexican children in all public schools." Social conservatives in Mexico, led by the National Front for the Family and supported by far-right groups in the U.S. and elsewhere, seek to end abortion and comprehensive sex education in the nation, along with stopping same-sex marriages, Right Wing Watch notes.
Mexico City and nine of the nation's 31 states currently allow same-sex couples to legally marry. The Mexican Supreme Court has ruled that bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional, but some states have been reluctant to implement the ruling. President Enrique Nieto wants to guarantee the freedom to marry, regardless of gender, in the nation's constitution.
That has drawn strong opposition from the far right in Mexico. The National Front for the Family organized anti-equality marches around the nation September 10 and 11, with hundreds of thousands of people reportedly participating, but there were strong pro-LGBT counterprotests. One show of support for equality won praise from around the world -- a 12-year-old boy who was photographed blocking antigay marchers in the city of Celaya. "I have an uncle who is gay," he told the photographer. "And I hate that people hate." There have been other major demonstrations for LGBT rights, like the one shown below.
A pro-equality demonstration in Mexico
Brown and company, though, are urging people from the U.S. and elsewhere to join in the hate. NOM, the World Congress of Families (of which Brown became president last year), and a group called CitizenGO are organizing the Friday rally in Washington. The antigay groups are also circulating an online petition; Brown plans to deliver copies to the National Front at the event in Mexico City.
"Even though most people can't be there in person," Brown wrote in a World Congress of Families email last week, as quoted by Right Wing Watch, "you can lend your name and voice to the effort to uphold marriage, protect children from 'gender ideology' and support the right of parents to direct their children's education according to their own values and principles."
"The National March for the Family has the potential of being the largest single demonstration of support for marriage, children and parental rights in history," the email continued. "Beyond its significance in the domestic affairs of Mexico, this march also can help advance the worldwide movement to support marriage, religious liberty and the truth of gender that we were made male and female."
