Hundreds Marry as Mexico Celebrates Marriage Equality, Gender ID Law

Jubilant transgender folks and same-sex couples celebrated in Mexico City on Friday.

The Associated Press reported 120 couples were able to marry under the slogan, “Hand in hand, we march with pride,” a representative of Mexico’s capital city said in a statement.

Many transgender people were also on hand to celebrate the completion of the administrative pathway to legally changing their gender identity.

“This is a very important document, more than a piece of paper or a symbol of marriage,” one of those who got married, Edgar Mendoza, told the AP. “It is security that I can give to my family.”

Mendoza and his partner have been together for 10 years.

“I didn’t think it would happen like this,” said Keila Espinoza, 38, who was on hand to marry her partner, Vaneza Garcia. “It’s very exciting.”

Mexico City legalized marriage equality in December 2009, and the law went into effect in March 2010. That same year, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled all states must recognize marriage licenses granted in Mexico City. Tamaulipas became the last of the country’s 32 states to recognize marriage equality last year.

"The whole country shines with a huge rainbow. Long live the dignity and rights of all people. Love is love," Arturo Zaldivar, minister and former president of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, tweeted at the time.

Friday’s mass wedding and birth certificate celebration came the day before Mexico City’s annual Pride parade.