Fewer than a dozen people attended a
protest at the Mexican embassy in Washington against a proposal to
legalize marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples throughout
Mexico.
The protest was organized by the
National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the World Congress of
Families (WCF), both of which are helmed by Brian Brown, and
CitizenGo, an international petition platform whose board Brown sits
on.
“The rally drew a grand total of 11
people,” Right
Wing Watch reported, “not counting a handful of children in
strollers, bystanders and reporters.”
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in
May asked lawmakers to debate the issue. While Mexico's highest
court has ruled that gay couples have a constitutional right to
marry, most states continue to deny marriage licenses to gay couples.
The Roman Catholic group National Front
for the Family (FNF) earlier this month organized marches in multiple
cities against the proposal, which drew, according to Reuters, “tens
of thousands” of protesters to the streets. The activists are
calling for a constitutional amendment which would exclude same-sex
couples from marriage. A national march in Mexico City is scheduled
to take place Saturday.
(Related: Boy
confronts thousands of protesters marching against gay marriage in
Mexico.)
Brown, who previously said that he
would be traveling to Mexico this weekend to personally deliver a
petition in support of FNF's efforts, did not attend Friday's rally
in D.C.
Activists at the rally read a letter
which they said they were delivering to the Mexican ambassador.
The letter makes the claim that
allowing gay couples to marry would weaken “the legal, social and
cultural fabric” of society.