*Updated May 19*
Guadalajara -
It is no exaggeration to say that virtually every week brings one or two "National Days" in Mexico. Almost everybody and everything gets recognized in this country sooner or later. Teachers, nurses, police, doctors, soldiers, sailors, airmen, firemen, and dozens of others. Today a new theme was added - Mexico's first ever National Day Against Homophobia, an event heralded by president Enrique Peña Nieto in a Twitter message earlier today.
"Because we're making Mexico a country of equality and not one of discrimination, today we celebrate for the first time the National Day of the Fight Against Homophobia," wrote Peña Nieto. The executive office of the presidency announced that this date was chosen because on May 17, 1990, the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders.
Both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association had done likewise 16 years before, in 1974, when their membership approved this formal statement:
"Homosexuality per se implies no impairment in judgment, stability, reliability or general social and vocational capabilities. The APA urges all mental health professionals to take the lead in removing the stigma of mental illness which has long been associated with homosexual orientations."
The same year the American Psychiatric Association also removed homosexuality as a listed illness in its renowned Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (now the DSM-5), where it had first appeared 22 years earlier, in 1952.
May 18 - Federal District Governor Miguel Ángel Mancera announced that his PRD administration will introduce legislation before Mexico City's general assembly to establish a system of noncriminal, administrative fines to punish anyone who discriminates against members of the so-called LGBTTTI community. That acronym stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, transvestite and "intersexual" persons. MGR wonders - what about common garden variety heterosexuals?
May 19 - Ugandan gay activist Byarugaba Dickson, 29, has asked Mexico for political asylum after arriving in this country yesterday. Newly enacted Ugandan criminal laws carry draconian penalties, ranging from life in prison to the death sentence, for those who engage in homosexual acts. Dozens of new civil laws and administrative regulations render it impossible for gays to live and work openly.
Sept. 2, 2014 - Mexico's 31 states remain slow to recognize gay marriage
Oct. 19, 2013 - Guadalajara Catholic Archdiocese: gays are "emotionally unstable"
Mar. 6, 2013 - Mexican Supreme Court: anti-gay comments are hate speech, not free speech, and are not legally protected
© MGR 2014. All rights reserved. This article may be cited or briefly quoted with proper attribution or a hyperlink, but not reproduced without permission.
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