MEXICO CITY – The mayor was there. So were the protesters. Judith Vázquez wore an ivory wedding dress. So did her bride.
Judith Vazquez (left) and Lol Kin Castaneda embrace after getting married Thursday in Mexico City. Five couples wed under the new law. " width="175" height="206">Vázquez and Lol Kin Castañeda on Thursday became the first gay couple to marry in Mexico under a new law that allows people of the same sex to wed and to adopt children.
The law was passed by the Mexico City Legislature in December and applies only to the capital. It is the furthest-reaching gay-rights law in Latin America and one of several measures that have put the city and its leftist leaders at odds with the larger, more conservative country.
"This is a historic day," presiding Judge Hegel Cortes said shortly after pronouncing Vázquez and Castañeda, along with three other gay couples, "legitimately united in matrimony."
Jesusa Rodríguez's flight was delayed and she missed the event; she and her partner of 30 years were wed later in a separate ceremony.
The city put on quite a show, despite harsh criticism from the conservative political party that governs the nation and from the influential Roman Catholic Church.
Thursday's ceremony took place in the columned courtyard of the 300-year-old Municipal Palace in downtown Mexico City, on a stage festooned with white lilies and a larger-than-life bust of Benito Juárez. Mayor Marcelo Ebrard attended, applauding warmly and hugging all the newlyweds, as did the heads of the city's legislature and highest court.
"I am overjoyed to finally be making this real," said Vázquez, 44. "A different world is possible."
Each of the couples responded affirmatively to the judge's questioning on whether they were entering marriage of their free will. Then Vázquez and her bride were the first to step up and sign the official registry, each sealing it with a thumbprint. They gave an ink-stained "thumbs-up" and kissed as the audience erupted in cheers.
Outside the Municipal Palace on the edge of downtown's vast Zocalo plaza, several dozen demonstrators waved signs proclaiming "marriage" as the union of man and woman. "Don't get confused!" the signs proclaimed.
"Can you imagine if two fathers take a kid to kindergarten, how all the other kids are going to react?" asked Carlos Osorio, a 29-year-old actor in charge of the protest. "Mexican society is not capable of accepting this."
The federal government of President Felipe Calderón, a conservative Catholic, filed a challenge to the law in the courts last month, arguing that it violates the rights and protections of families and children. The city's legal adviser, Leticia Bonífaz, said she didn't expect a ruling for another year or more.
The church has been unusually vocal in its criticism, saying it was especially alarmed that gay couples would be allowed to adopt children.
Under Ebrard and his left-wing party, Mexico City has enacted a number of liberal laws and programs, including the legalization of abortion. In the case of abortion, several states responded by digging in their heels to keep abortion illegal.
A similar backlash might be in store for gay marriage as several states begin to examine legislation that would reaffirm matrimony as the union of man and woman.
Vázquez said she knew the fight was not over.
"I am dreaming," she said, "but with my eyes wide open."
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