MEXICO: Gay Wedding Stalled After Haters Claim Grooms "Suffer From Madness"

As anti-gay activists wearing surgical masks protested outside Mexicali City Hall, the first same-sex wedding in the state of Baja California was thwarted yesterday after a local Christian group filed a legal complaint that the grooms are mentally ill. Via U-T San Diego:

Saturday’s ceremony had been on the civil registry’s calendar for weeks. Hours after a spokesman for the city had confirmed early in the day that the wedding would take place, a top city official said the event had been canceled due to a complaint that the two men “suffer from madness.” The accuser was Angelica Guadalupe Gonzalez Sanchez, president of the Coalition of Baja California Families, who with her husband gives mandatory pre-marital talks to couples preparing for civil wedding ceremonies at Mexicali City Hall. In her complaint, Gonzalez said the pair had been “aggressive and impertinent” on Thursday after she refused to certify their attendance in her talk, and her husband told them that the sessions were intended for heterosexual couples.

One protester, David Mesa, a Christian pastor, said that he was morally and legally opposed to same-sex marriage, “because of what this could mean for the future, such as the adoption of infants, that’s our motive and nothing else.” A top municipal official, Jose Felix Arango Perez, told reporters early Saturday afternoon that “on our part, there were no obstacles. … However, the submission of the complaint by this individual obligates us to suspend the legal ceremony.” He said it is now up to the state’s family court system to resolve the issue. But a member of the Mexicali City Council, Abraham Medina, said, “I think it’s nothing more than an excuse. … They’re just doing this to buy time. I don’t know why they are making these people go through this torment.”

The couple has been attempting to marry for months. Yesterday's ridiculous charge prompted the Twitter hashtag #MisDerechosNoSonLocura - "my rights are not crazy."

UPDATE: Via JMG reader David, here is video of the couple confronting anti-gay activist Angelica Gonzalez Sanchez, who later filed the complaint against them.