I recently found out that my cousin is gay. When I first heard the news I was taken aback because I would’ve never guessed he was gay. However, after the shock subsided and I acknowledged that he was gay my feelings towards him didn’t change at all. My parents brought me up to be a person who accepts and respects everyone regardless of things like race, religion, or sexual preferences. So, I love my cousin to death and his sexual preferences don’t affect that at all.
What worried me, however, was how his family was going to respond to the news. They are a very traditional Mexican family. Because of this I assumed that they weren’t going to be accepting about his sexual preferences.
However, when I decided to do some research about the topic, what I found surprised me. Apparently the Mexican community is one of the most accepting of the LGBT community. In fact, homosexuality was never explicitly banned in Mexico. Also Mexico City now has a new definition of marriage. The new definition of marriage is the "the free uniting of two people" instead of the previous "one man and one woman. You’ll find more great information in this article.
I am a Mexican American and I visit Mexico every year. It is actually amazing to see how accepting Mexicans are of the gay community, especially in the capital. Gay people are so free-spirited and open about their sexuality. I wish that it could be the same here. It was very interesting to read this article and learn more about the Mexican community. I am also happy to hear that you accepted your cousins sexuality. He needs as much support as possible at this time.
ReplyDeleteHere is an image I found, I thought you might like it.
http://www.machamexico.com/2009/06/03/gay-pride-outside-mexico-city/
This is an advertisement on the 9th Gay Pride Pride in Monterrey from last year.
I really enjoyed reading this because not only is this interesting, its very surprising. What I have learned about Mexico, the vast majority of the population practices catholicism, so I assumed that being so religious might prevent them (like many other countries) from being accepting of the gay community.
ReplyDeleteWith this in mind, I wonder why some countries are better at accepting the gay community and others aren't. I've been reading about African countries who are proposing bills to criminalize homosexuality, so its just interesting (yet nice to hear) that Mexico doesn't even define marriage based on gender notions.